The Blond Demon
by slashAvenger
Summary: Naruto meets Kurama when he is 5 years old and they come to an agreement. See how this changes Naruto's life completely. Intelligent Naruto.
1. Prologue: Meeting Kurama

Prologue: Meeting Kurama

* * *

"Look! It's that demon brat!"

"Why did the Hokage-sama let him live?"

"Let's kill him then. I am sure he has the Hokage-sama fooled somehow. Must be some spell of his."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Of course. Who is going to stop us anyway? After he is dead, I'm sure the Hokage-sama will be released from the spell. He'll be thankful for our service and reward us for it. "

* * *

5-yr Naruto Uzumaki walked down the street ignoring all the glares and curses directed at him. He heard a rattling noise behind him and turned around to see an empty cart heading right for him.

* * *

The acrid smell of disinfectant and tobacco greeted Naruto when he woke up. Sitting by his bed, in a hospital room, smoking his pipe was the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi. He groaned as he tried to sit up. The right half of his body was heavily bandaged.

"What happened, Jiji? Why am I in the hospital?"

"Don't you remember? You were attacked, Naruto. Some civilians tried to kill you by running you over. Luckily you managed to survive. The people responsible have been caught and will soon be punished for their actions. Don't get up. Lie down. You need to rest."

He couldn't get up if he wanted anyway. The pain coursing through his body was clouding his mind. With another groan he lay back down. He didn't think he would be going anywhere tonight."

"Naruto, why were you roaming around so late at night when I have explicitly told you not to do so? You were supposed to be home with your caretaker."

"She kicked me out."

He glanced and saw a look of barely controlled anger on the Jiji's face. It took him a couple of seconds to school his features.

"What! Why did Minami-san do that? Weren't you two getting along well? You told me that she was much nicer than the first two women."

"It was my fault. Not hers."

"Why? What happened?"

"I cut the back my hand on a piece of broken glass. There was some blood. Minami-san brought some bandages to tape it. But then she..."

He didn't want to remember what had happened after that. He didn't want to remember the look of fear she had thrown at him. She had taken one look at his cut and a look of abject terror filed her face. She had called him a demon. She had screamed at him to leave and to never come back. It had hurt. He was used to strangers calling him a demon. But even nice Minami-san had called him a demon. Minami-san who cooked so well. Minami-san who had told him that he was her son.

"Naruto, I know it is difficult but it is always good to let it out."

"She saw the cut and then began to scream. She called me a demon and told me leave forever."

Tears started to flow from his eyes as he said this.

Sarutobi was at a loss for words. He had hoped to give Naruto a happy childhood. A childhood free of hatred and assassination attempts. He had failed miserably at that. For the first time in all his years as Hokage, he did not know what to do. He didn't know what to say to allay the boy's fears.

"Naruto, don't worry. Don't believe anything that woman said to you. I will always be here for you."

"Jiji, please don't leave me like Minami-san and Aoi-san and Inoue-san did. Minami-san said that I had fooled you somehow. She said you would come to your senses one day and see what I really was. I swear, Jiji I am not playing any trick on you. I swear. I would never do anything like that to you. Please don't leave me like the rest of them. Please."

He was going to flay that women. How she utter such insensitive words to an innocent boy like this. She has almost broken him. He knelt down next to the bed and held the boy's hand with both of his.

"Naruto, believe me when I say this. I will never leave you. I know that you aren't playing any tricks on me. I know what kind of person you really are. I trust you. Don't worry. I swear that I will always be there for you."

Naruto pulled his hand free, leaned forward, hugged the old man and started sobbing into his chest.

"Jiji, why does everyone hate me? Why do they keep trying to kill me? What did I ever do to them? How do I make them stop? Please tell me. I'll do anything you say. Please tell me."

Sarutobi pulled the boy closer into his chest.

"Naruto, I can't tell you the reason now but I will some day when you are older. However listen to what I'm going to say to you now and never forget it. When you were born, you were chosen to be the hero who would protect this village. However the villagers do not know that and they hate you. Instead of succumbing to your anger towards them, you have overcome your hate. You must endure their anger and prove to them with you deeds that you are truly a hero. You must not give in to hate and lower yourself to their level because you are made of better material than them. If you work hard, then you will be respected by everyone. I know that this path is very difficult but that is why you were chosen. Because you are a hero. Even if you don't understand what I just said, remember it. You will understand it one day."

Slowly, the boy's sobs faded away. After a while, he pulled himself free and started staring out of the window. Sighing, Sarutobi got up to leave.

"Naruto, you stay here for a while. I'll try and find a new caretaker for you as soon as I can. Someone more trustworthy than the previous three."

"No Jiji, don't bother. She'll also leave me as soon as she can. I don't need a caretaker anymore. I can take care of myself. Let me be. It's better like this. It's easier like this. I'm sick of the betrayals. I don't need any more of them."

The boy's words crushed his heart. Once again he don't know what to say.

"Fine. I'll get you an apartment and open an account for you. Since, you are the orphan of two shinobi, the village will give you an yearly grant. It's not much, but if you are smart then you will be able to get by easily."

With that and a heavy heart, he left.

* * *

Naruto stared out of the window at nothing. He thought about what the Jiji has said to him. His words hadn't made any sense to him. How could somebody like him be a hero. After a while, sleep overpowered him and he drifted off into his dreams.

He was floating. Floating in a sea of darkness.

"_Boy, do not listen to the foolish ramblings of that old man. He does not understand your pain. I do. I know how it feels to be hated by everyone. Kill them. Kill all of them. Take out all your hate on them. Use my power and end everything."_

Naruto woke up. He stood in a large room. There were pipes on the walls and the floor was flooded with dark bubbling water. In front of him was a large cage. Large enough to fit the entire Hokage building within it. Within it was the Kyuubi.

"You...you are the Kyuubi. Where am I? What's going on? How did I get here? Is this a dream?"

_"Boy, this is no dream. This is the realm inside you. You are here because I brought you here.5 years ago that dratted Yondaime Hokage sealed me here within you. That is the why the village hates you. Because of what I have done. Those foolish villagers think that you are I in human form and they curse you for it. Even though it is no fault of yours. It hurts doesn't it. Being hated all the time is not nice is it. I will tell you how to put an end to all of it. Use my power. Use it and kill them all and only then will you find peace."_

Naruto woke up with a jolt.

* * *

Sarutobi was almost at the end of the corridor when he felt a an aura. An aura that he had felt 5 years ago on the night Naruto had been born. The night his successor and his wife had sacrificed themselves for the sake of the village. Dread filled him. He shunshined back into Naruto's room. The boy was covered in a red chakra cloak. His whiskers were more feral. Fangs were poking out of his mouth. His nails were transforming into claws. Sarutobi stood shocked for a second. Then his hands rushed together to make handsigns. The tips of the fingers of his right hand began to glow with a blue flame.

"Let's hope this suppresses the Kyuubi's chakra", thought Sarutobi as he slammed his hand on the boy's stomach.

* * *

Naruto jolted awake and noticed that his stomach felt as if it had been hit by a boulder. He looked up and saw the Jiji staring at him with anxiety in his eyes.

"Naruto, what happened? Are you okay? How do you feel?"

Naruto was confused. Had that been a dream? Had he been hallucinating? But it had felt so real. Was the Kyuubi really sealed within him? His head pounded with all the possibilities. He needed time to think.

"I'm fine, Jiji. Just some sort of weird dream."

"A dream? Indulge an old man will you and tell me about this dream of yours."

"I don't remember anything." lied Naruto.

"Get some rest, Naruto. I will come back later to check on you."

He watched as the old man walked out. He waited for some time to make sure that he was gone. Then he got off the bed. His right leg and his stomach still throbbed but it was bearable. He opened the window of his room and slipped out.

* * *

Sarutobi walked into his office with a vicious look on his face.

"Kakashi", he shouted at the top of his voice.

Instantly a kneeling ANBU wearing a wolf mask materialized in front of him.

"I gave you this responsibility because I trusted you. I had believed that you protect your own sensei's boy with your life. Yet, Naruto is in hospital now. Explain youself."

"I'm sorry, Hoakge-sama. I was too far away to save him. I was too slow. I have failed sensei for the second time. Now I have failed you too. Please forgive me. I will accept any punishment that you mete out to me."

Sarutobi's anger collapsed like a burst bubble and was replaced by deep sadness.

"Kakashi, Minato never wanted this for his son. He wanted his son to be known as a hero. But I could not keep that promise. Naruto's lineage had to be hidden to protect him. We have both failed in our duty to Minato's memory. I am no better than you .Keep a better watch on him. Do not fail your sensei a third time."

"If I may speak freely , sir."

"You may."

"Why do you insist on assigning him civilian caretakers. They know nothing about the Kyuubi. They think Naruto is the demon himself in human form. Why don't you give him to a shinobi family? It will also be safer for him that way. He will be able to meet other children of his age that way and actually have a normal childhood."

"No. I have thought about but decided against it. By doing that, I would be compelling him to be a shinobi which is something I do not want to do. If he wants to become a shinobi, it should be of his own choice. If he chooses to, he may remain a civilian. I will not force him to be a weapon for the village."

"That is your reason? You consign him to a childhood of hate just because you don't want him to feel compelled to become a shinobi? He is a jinchuriki and that of the Kyuubi no less. His destined to become a shinobi."

"Enough. I already made my decision. Nothing you say is going to change it. Now get back to your duties. Naruto must have sneaked out of the hospital already, if I know him."

He met Kakashi's icy glare with one of his own.. As soon as he left, Sarutobi called in his secretary.

"Let it be known that today's attackers have received life imprisonment. If there is another attack on the boy, I will have the perpetrators will be executed"

"Hai, Hokage-sama"

With a heavy heart, Sarutobi sat down and reached for his hidden stash of sake.

* * *

Naruto settled himself down on top of the Yondaime's head. This was the place he went to whenever he needed to think. For some reason, this place always calmed him down.

He was the Kyuubi's container. That was why everyone hated him. The Yondaime had not sacrificed himself to kill the Kyuubi. He had sacrificed himself to seal the Kyuubi within Naruto. Why had he been chosen? He must been a baby back then. Why not seal it withi a strong shinobi like the Jiji?

The old man's words suddenly made sense to him now. He realized why the old man had called him a hero. He understood why he had to endure. For the first time, in his life he felt at peace. For the first time in his life, he knew what to do. He got up and went back to the hospital.

* * *

Naruto walked into his new apartment. He had left the hospital as soon as the Jiji had got him this place. The jiji had had someone to bring over all of his belongings from Minami-san's house. He was grateful for the old man's thoughtfulness. He had been dreading returning there. The place was small but atleast it was completely furnished. He would not have the additional headache of having to buy everything himself. He supposed that he would have to learn how to cook, now that he was going to be living alone. He sank onto his couch. It was threadbare and lumpy but it was his. This whole place was his. He let out a small hoot of happiness.

His happiness faded away after a while. He decided that it was time to get down to business. He sat down in the middle of his living room, closed his eyes and formed the Lotus position. He then started to meditate. When he opened his eyes, he was back in the large room with pipes. He looked up at the Kyuubi.

"Hello, Kyuubi-san"

_"You have come here of your own volition. You are stupider than you look, boy. Tell me, what do you want?"_

"Please tell me how were you born."

An expression of shock flitted onto the Kyuubi's face.

_"What! Why do you want to know something like that?"_

"Just tell me. I need to understand something."

_"You have no control over me and I owe you nothing."_

"All I want to have a civil conversation with you. We happen to be stuck with each other for the foreseeable future. Let's be nice to each other. It will make things easier. I am going to do what I came to do whether you answer or not. So the choice is upto you."

The boy's eyes were filled with honesty. There was no fear or anger in them. How could that be? Should he answer the boy's questions? His life had been completely out of his own control for over a hundred years now. This was the first choice he had given in a long time. And that too by a puny boy no less. He decided to answer. The boy's question had piqued his interest.

_"Cheh. Fine, boy. I will tell you. Feel honoured that I decided to tell you. Centuries ago, this world was inhabited by a monster called the Juubi. It was an huge mass of foul chakra and it wrought untold destruction upon this world. The monster was finally defeated by a priest known as the Rikudo Sennin. After defeating it, he sealed it within himself and became the first ever Jinchuuriki. He was the no ordinary man. He was the first ninja. The first person to understand the meaning of chakra and to understand it's usage. When he was nearing death, he realized that after his passage, the Juubi would break free again. To prevent that, he created us nine Bijuu and split the Juubi's chakra among us. By doing so, he prevented the destruction of this world by the Juubi. And that is the story of my birth, boy. A story which new human has ever heard before. Now tell me what you understood from that?"_

"I see. I understand now. That Rikudo Sennin, entrusted the safety of the world to you with his death. Just like the Yondaime entrusted the safety of this village to me with his death. However the people of this world saw you as a demon and hated you. Just like the people of this village hate me. Ironic isn't that both of us are hated by the people we are destined to protect. So you understand my pain, don't you."

_"I do"_

"And, did you hear what the old man told me in the hospital?"

_"I did."_

"You understood what he had to say, didn't you? If a kid like me can overcome the hate and decide to endure it, then a great being like you can surely do it."

_"It is not easy to forget centuries of hate, boy. It is easy to say things like that but to actually accomplish it is not possible. Since the day I was created, I have been known as a demon. A source of power. A tool to be imprisoned and used for your own gains. Never once have I been acknowledged by them. So why should I try to bury my hate and try to prove myself to them when they have never done anything for me. Answer that, you naive boy."_

"Because it is the right thing to do."

The boy's words shook him. How could a 5 year old boy spout powerful words such as these.

_" What makes you think that I have a conscience within me."_

"The Jiji once told me that every single person has an inherent goodness in them. It is their choice whether the decide to use it or abandon it."

Once again they were the words of a naive boy but then why did he feel that he wanted to agree with him.

_"All these ideals are easy to say but impossible to accomplish."_

"No. I will prove you wrong. I swear upon my blood that I will overcome the hate and prove myself to this village or die trying. I know it won't be easy but the Jiji said that it is my destiny to endure it and prove everyone else wrong because I am made of stronger material than them. I want this village to respect me. To me all the effort I put into it will be worth it. Hating them and taking revenge on them is the easy way out. Don't you want the people of this world to acknowledge you? Don't you want them to know that you saved the world? Tell me."

_"I do."_

The words had slipped out without him meaning to. The boy was pulling out feelings which he buried away deep inside long ago.

"So what d'ya say? Want to prove the world wrong? Want to make them acknowledge us? "

A deep melancholy rose within the Kyuubi. This boy had had changed him with just a few words. He had made overcame years of anger in just a few minutes. The Kyuubi suddenly felt at peace. For the first time since he was born, he knew he was doing the right thing. He hoped the Sennin would forgive his past mistakes.

He held out his fist through the gate.

_"Kid. From this day forth, we are partners for life. Together we will prove to the world what we really are." _

"Partners, huh? Nice."

Naruto bumped his fist against the Kyuubi's.

" So do you have a name, Kyuubi-san?"

The boy had asked him his name. Nobody had ever even thought that he would have a name. An identity for himself.

_"Naruto, you are not like any human I have met before. You showed someone like me compassion instead of hate. You even made me overcome my anger. An anger which has been burning for centuries now. You are truly a great person. Yes, I have a name. I have never told anybody this. My name is Kurama._

"Kurama, huh? That's a cool name. So, Kurama-san, how about we be friends as well as being partners?"

_"Sure. I guess having a friend, would make this place less boring."_

"Awesome. I just made my first friend and he is totally bad-ass. Yeahhhhhhhh", said Naruto and started dancing about acting like a 5 year old again after a long time. After some time, he once again calmed down.

"Kurama-san, why did you attack Konoha 5 years age?

_"That was not me. Someone else had captured my mind and was controlling me. It was he who forced me to attack this village. Even though I hated you humans, I never sought you out. Mindless slaughter never amused me. Please believe me."_

"Kurama-san, don't worry. I believe you. "

_"You are naive, Naruto. I could be playing you by the nose right now, for all you know."_

"Well you aren't, are you? So let's leave it at that."

_"So what happens now."_

"I train until I am string enough to become Hokage."

_"Why train? With my strength, it will be very easy for you to become Hokage."_

"There is no point if I can't achieve it myself. Might as well give up now itself."

_"Cheh, you know what Naruto, you are one weird kid. Now go. You need to sleep and I need to contemplate."_

* * *

__This is my first jab at writing fanfiction so please excuse any errors I may have made. Positive criticism will be appreciated.


	2. Chapter 1: Revelations

Chapter 1: Revelations

* * *

The Next Day

Naruto woke up hungry. He decided that he did not like the feeling. He sighed. He supposed he would have to go shopping for food now. Then it struck him that he had no clue what to do with the food after he bought it. His stomach released another loud grumble. Cursing his stomach, Naruto got up and decided to wing it.

* * *

Naruto stared at the sheer number of vegetables arrayed before him. What should he buy? What did he do With them after he bought it? His eyes fell on some potatoes. That's it. He would buy potatoes and make mashed potatoes. That couldn't be too difficult, could it?

"Um sir, how much for 10 potatoes?"

The shopkeeper had been glaring at him since the time he had entered the shop. On hearing his question however, his face split into a grin.

"Of course, sir. Of course. For you, I will give a special price."

"How much?"

"1000 ryo."

"Are you crazy? I don't even have that much money."

"What can I do sir? Prices have sky-rocketed in the last few months. How will I support my family, if I sell my goods at a loss?"

"Ok then here is 200 ryo. Give me two."

"I'm sorry, sir but that would be 400 ryo. Since, you were buying in bulk, I gave you a special prize of 1000 ryo but if you are buying only two, then I have to sell them at the true prize which would be 400 ryo."

"You sick bastard. How dare you try to cheat an innocent buy like that? Don't you have any shame?", a female voice cried out. Naruto turned and saw that the owner of the voice was a young woman with brown hair.

"Ayame-san, this is not some innocent kid. This is that demon kid. He doesn't deserve your kindness."

"Shut up. Look at that cute face of his. Does he look like a demon to you. Shame on you. I'm going to tell all my friends to avoid this place from now on."

She walked up to Naruto, smiled at him and held out her hand.

"Hi. I'm Ayame. Come with me. I'll help you buy whatever you want."

She grasped Naruto's hand and pulled him along behind her. Naruto stared up at the kind lady who had helped him. She had touched him. She was still touching him. Her hand felt warm and nice.

"So tell me what do you need to buy? Oh wait.. that was so rude of me. I didn't even ask you your name."

Naruto pulled his hand free.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"You touched me. Nobody touches me. People run away when I go near them. And you stopped that shop-keeper from cheating me. Why?"

Ayame frowned down at him. A vein appeared on her forehead. A very angry vein.

"Young man, do you know how rude that was? I help you and you insult me? Apologize now."

Woah, she looks scary as hell. Better not piss her off any more. He stared down at the ground.

"Sorry, nee-chan. I was being stupid. My name is Uzumaki Naruto by the way."

Ayame smiled and bent down to his height.

"Just because others aren't nice to you doesn't mean that I can't be nice to you. Besides, you're so cute there is no way I could be mean to you"

She reached out and started pulling his cheeks. What the hell? He had thought looking for food to buy had been hell but this was much worse. One second, she was scolding him and calling him cute the next. He supposed that she was crazy as well as scary. His stomach let go another rumble. She heard it and let go of his cheeks. Finally, for the first time today his stomach had done something useful for him.

"You're starving aren't you. Come on. My dad and I run a restaurant. You can eat something there. It's not too far away."

The Jiji had told him not to follow strangers. Especially the ones that offered him food. His stomach groaned again. Oh, what the hell? If she was going to kill him, then at least he would die with a satisfied stomach. He didn't want it haunting him in the next life. Besides, if he wanted to become Hokage he should at least be able to fight off one weak looking girl however scary or crazy she may be.

* * *

"Hey, dad. We have a customer. This is Naruto-kun. Give him a bowl of miso ramen."

"Sure, sure. Have a seat, young man. It'll be ready in a couple of minutes."  
True to his word, Teuchi-san placed a delicious smelling bowl in front of him. As Naruto inhaled the aroma, his hunger increased. He dug in with gusto. It was even more tasty than it smelled.

"Oy, Jiji. How much for one bowl?"

"20 ryo"

Naruto ran a couple of calculations in his mind. Eating here would turn out to be cheaper than buying the food himself. Besides it saved him the hassle of learning how to cook. Plus, the food was heavenly.

"Great. One more, old man."

* * *

1 month later

Naruto sat in the middle of his room surrounded by sheets upon sheets of notes. Right in front of him was a list.

"Oy, Kurama-san what do you think?"

_"Think about what?"_

"Can't you see everything I see?"

_"I can but I choose not to."_

"Why"

_"Because I happen to have honor and hence I respect your privacy. Also I have better things to do than observe your boring life. All you have been doing for the last month is reading books in that library."_

"All you do is sleep all the time."

_"Like I said, better things. Now get back to the point."_

"I was reading up on the things I would have to learn to become a shinobi. I made a list of sorts. I needed your opinion about something."

_"Read the list out to me first."_

"Can't you just look at it yourself?"

_"No."_

"Mangy furball."

_"What did you say? Care to repeat that?"_

"Nothing. Nothing."

He scratched his head.

"So, do you mean to say that you didn't spy on my before. Before we met."

_"No. I used to spy on you all the time looking for weaknesses so that I could free myself."_

"How would you do that anyway?"

_"I was hoping that you would give into anger and use my chakra. The more often you draw chakra from me, the looser the seal becomes."_

"Man, you're scary. Glad to have you on my side. So how does the seal allow me to use your chakra anyway?"

_" At all times, the seal allows a small amount of my chakra through to mingle with yours. I can increase the amount however but I don't know by how much. We will have to test it out and see what the limit is."_

"Man, what a seal! Kurams-san, I want you to sop releasing even the slightest amount of chakra. I want to grow on my own."

_"I had already guessed that that would be your view about this. I have already stopped giving you chakra. On that note, I have something I have to tell you. I consider it to be my duty as your friend to tell you this. The Yondaime was your father."_

To say Naruto was shocked, would not cut it. He sat gaping for a while before he regained control of his face.

"Wait a second. I'm coming in there."

He took up a meditative pose. When he opened his eyes, he was in his mindscape.

"Are...are you sure? How do you know this?

_"Because my previous Jinchuuriki, Kushina Uzumaki, was your mother. Her seal was different from yours. It completely contained me and prevented all interaction between us. I could not watch her at all. I learned very little of her but of this I am sure. The Yondaime is your father."_

"Previous jinchuuriki? How? How could you have attacked the village then? Tell me. Tell me everything about the attack on the village. About who controlled you."

_"Yes. I owe it to you. Naruto, do you know about the Sharingan?"_

"Isn't that the dojutsu of the Uchiha clan?"

_"Yes. It is actually a cursed offshoot of the Rinnegan. The Rinnegan was the dojutsu of the Rikudo Sennin. Nobody else has ever had them. It is what gave him his power. The Sharingan is not as powerful but still formidable. A normal Sharingan user can see the flow of chakra, is able to perceive objects moving at very high speedsand can copy any ninjutsu that is viewed with his eyes. Around a hundred years ago, the Uchiha can head was Uchiha Madara. He was unbelievably powerful, having somehow awakened a higher level of the Sharingan called the Mangekyo Sharingan. It was he who together with Hashirama Senju founded this village. However they both wanted to be Hokage. Madara sought me out somehow and forced me to do his bidding. With my power, he attacked Hashirama Senju for the title of Hokage but he was defeated at a battle at the Valley of the End. After that Konoha got me under their control. Your mother was my second jinchuuriki. Her seal was very good but it grew weak during the time she was pregnant with you. The night you were born, a masked man claiming to be Madara attacked. He tore me out of your mother and put me under his control. He forced me to attack Konoha while he fought your father. I think your father defeated him because his hold over me was relinquished. However, I was beyond anger at that time and I continued to attack the village. Your father and mother fought me and captured me. Your father used the Shinigami to seal my Yin chakra within himself. Then they both used up the last of their chakra, into sealing my Yang half and my consciousness within you I think the masked man got away."_

Naruto sat silent for a while.

"I see. So that is how they died."

_"No. They died because I tried to kill you and they protected you with their bodies. I am very sorry Naruto. I know I don't have the right to ask this but please forgive me."_

Tears starting falling out Naruto's eyes. His parents were heroes. They had been unbelievably strong and they had entrusted their will to him. He understood why he had been chosen as the container. He wished he could have met them once. He wiped his face and got up with a smile on his face.

"I forgive you Kurama-san. The fact that you told me this instead of hiding it, proves that you have truly changed and that you are repenting your actions. Thank you for trusting me with this knowledge. I have always wanted to know about my parents. I will always cherish this. I'm going now. I need some time to think."

With that, he disappeared. In his living room, he opened his eyes and walked to his window. He gazed out towards the Hokage mountain at his father's face. He held his hand out to him.

"Dad. I swear I will become a great shinobi. A shinobi greater than you or mom. I will not let your sacrifice go in vain. I will not let that masked man harm Konoha."

He withdrew his hand and looked up at the moon for a few minutes. He then headed towards the library to read everything he could about his father.

* * *

Thanks for the reviews, guys. Made me feel nice that people are actually reading the stuff I wrote. Next chapter will be up tomorrow.


	3. Chapter 2: Training Begins

Chapter 2: Training Begins

* * *

The Next Day

Naruto sat on his table finishing up his second bowl of instant ramen.

"Oy, Kurama-san, we forgot about my list yesterday. I still need your help about it."

_"Tell me."_

"Well basically, I need to master ninjutsu and taijutsu. I decided to ignore genjutsu for the time being. I'll do that later. In the library, I found books on basic and advanced chakra control. I also found a scroll containing academy level ninjutsu. I thought that I would master those first before scrounging for better ninjutsus. For taijutsu, I realized that I need to improve my body strength, speed and power first. Those I can do by running laps and stuff like that. The main problem I'm facing is about the taijutsu itself. Nobody's going to teach me and I don't have anybody to spar with. How am I to learn something like that on my own? Any ideas?"

_"Make a clone and fight with it."_

"But clones aren't solid. How do I fight them?"

_"I'm not talking about the basic Bunshin no Jutsu. That thing is completely useless. I have seen many shinobi use something called a Kage Bunshin. These clones are solid and don't disperse that easily. I don't know how but you should try and learn it somehow."_

"Makes sense. Must be a pretty advanced technique, though. I found no mention of it anywhere in the library. I wonder where I'll be able to find a scroll about it."

_"Why don't you first learn chakra control properly and all the academy stuff before going for any of the other stuff. It must be pretty advanced, if it's not there in the library."_

"You're right. I was getting ahead of myself again. Thanks for that, by the way."

* * *

One Week Later

Naruto lay panting in the middle of a clearing in the forest. His clothes were covered in dust and he was wearing no shoes. The clearing had a stream running through it. A trail of wet footprints trailed from the stream to him. Many of the trees in the clearing had horizontal slashes on them , gradually leading up to the top of the tree. Near his head, there was a bucket full of water.

"Kurama-san, I finally got a hang of this of this chakra control thing. Let me try it with some of your chakra. I want to see how different it is."

_"My chakra is too powerful for things like this. You may be able to climb trees or walk on water if you practice but you definitely will not be able to lift spheres of water with it like you did with your own chakra."_

"Let me try at least. No harm in that."

_"Ok. Here you go but be careful."_

A red chakra cloak formed around Naruto. Like the time in the hospital, his nails and teeth lengthened and his whiskers became more prominent. His eyes turned red and his pupils changed into vertical slits. He walked over to the streamand looked at his own reflection.

"Wow! I look totally bad-ass. Awesome. I think I'll walk into the village like this just to scare the shit out of everyone."

_"They'll see how bad-ass you are and instantly make you the Hokage, won't they?"_

"You don't have a sense of humor, do you? Relax. I'm kidding. Now let's try to climb that tree."

With that, he took off towards the tree at a sprint. When his foot touched the tree, instead of adhering to the bark, it went right through, cutting the tree into two. Naruto landed unceremoniously on the other side, rolled a few times and came to rest a few feet away. His chakra cloak disappeared and his body returned to normal.

_"I thought you were trying to climb the tree. Not destroy it."_

"Now you get a sense of humor. Ow. I banged my head. Your chakra is too bloody powerful." He got up slowly and realized that his chakra cloak was gone. "Why did you stop? Give me some more. I want to try again."

_"No. You're too tired now. Besides all you would do is break all the trees in this clearing. If you want to practice with my chakra again, then try water walking. At least you won't destroy anything that way. Now go rest. You haven't been home in a week."_

"That's not my fault You didn't wake me up every time I passed out."

_"Believe me I tried. Nothing penetrates that thick skull of yours when you're asleep."_

"Shut up. You snore in your sleep."

_"What! I do not! Come in here and say that again if you dare."_

"Oh shut up, will you. I want to get home fast and sleep. I plan to start working on my stamina and strength tomorrow. I can't do that with you giving me a headache."

* * *

The Next Day

Naruto's alarm went off. With a grumble, he turned it off and got up. The sun hadn't even risen. He cursed his past self for forcing him to get up at this ungodly hour. With another curse, he got up and started to get ready. He wanted to start working on his physical strength and stamina from today. He planned to test out his limits today. He left his house and made his way to the village gate. He reached the gate and started off on his first lap of Konoha. He was on his third lap when a man wearing a green full body spandex suit appeared to his right.

"Yosh", he shouted as he started to jog alongside Naruto. "It is not often that I meet somebody else up so early in the morning. Pray tell me what you are doing here."

"Training to improve my speed and endurance."

"Why?"

"Because I want to become Hokage."

"Yosh. The flames of youth burn brightly within you. Good luck with your dream.", he man said with a thumbs up and a blinding smile. Naruto watched as the man disappeared leaving behind only a cloud of dust.

Naruto managed to complete seventeen laps before he collapsed from exhaustion and irritation. Being lapped eleven times per lap by a man wearing a green jumpsuit was really pissing off. It happened again the next day. And the day after that. On the fourth day, the man ran backwards and was still as fast. On the fifth day, he ran on his hands. Naruto watched as the man raced past him for the umpteenth time.

"That man is infuriating as hell. If he beats my while running backwards on his hands, then I'll kill myself. How the hell is he that fast? Is he even human?"

_"It just means that you are dead slow."_

"That's for your vote of confidence."

_"Stop complaining and get faster."_

"I know. I won't stop until I'm faster than that guy."

But even after a month, the gap between them was as wide as ever. Naruto was sitting exhausted by the gate having finished his laps when the man appeared before him again.

"Yosh! I was right when I first met you. The flames of youth do burn brightly within you. You have the guts to never give up. You have been trying to beat me for a month now but you never gave up even thought you failed every day. I commend your sincerity."

Naruto glared up at him.

"How do you know that I have been trying to beat you?"

"Because, every time you look at me, your eyes burn with the flames of rivalry. I get the same look in my eyes when I gaze at my own eternal rival."

"How do you know what you own eyes look like?"

"Enough questions. You will never beat me if you just run laps every day. You must follow a strict and arduous regimen for you to have any hope of doing so."

"Damn. But I have no idea how to do that."

"No worries. I, Maito Gai the Green Beast of Konoha, like your spirit. Hence, I swear that I will make you faster than myself or else I will climb the Hokage mountain 500 times using just my index fingers."

"Works for me."

"Yosh. Follow me. I have some extra body weights at home which you can use."

* * *

1 Week Later

Naruto sighed. This was the third shop he had been turned away from. All he wanted to do was to buy two swords. It wasn't as if he wasn't going to pay. He would try one more shop and if that didn't work out, he was going to do a Henge. It was the only Academy ninjutsu which seems remotely useful to him. He entered the next shop. A bell tinkled as he entered. A girl of his age emerged from a door and looked askance at him.

"What do you want? Are you lost or something?"

"No. I need to buy some weapons."

"Don't joke around kid. Get out of here before my dad comes."

"Don't call me kid. You're just barely older than me. And I do want to buy weapons. Look. Here's the money."

"Where are your parents?"

"Don't have any."

The girl looked at him for a couple of more seconds.

"Wait here. I'll get my dad. Don't touch anything."

She disappeared through the door and reappeared with a hulking giant of a man.

"My daughter says that you want to make a purchase."

"Yes. I would like to buy a standard set of shuriken and kunai. I also need two swords. Do you have any for my height?"

The man rummaged beneath the counter for a second and placed a small box on the table.

"Here you go. As for the swords, I do have some of your size but not too many. You won't have much a choice."

"I don't mind. Let me see them."

"Tenten, go fetch the swords."

The girl brought a large box from another room. Naruto opened it and started inspecting them. He eventually chose two and paid for them. He was just leaving when the girl cried out.

"Hey!"

He turned around.

"If you ever need somebody to spar with those swords then I'll be glad to help."

"Thanks. I appreciate that. I'm Naruto, by the way."

"I'm Tenten."

" Thanks again and see ya around."

He left the shop with a smirk on his face. It was time to find out more about that Kage Bunshin thing which Kurama-san had mentioned.

* * *

2 days later

Hiruzen Sarutobi was sitting on his office smoking his pipe and trying to catch up with his paperwork when his secretary burst in.

"Hokage-sama, there have been reports of break-ins in the ANBU library and the private libraries of the Uchiha and the Hyuuga", said the Hokage's private secretary.

"What! How did somebody infiltrate the Hyuuga complex? Didn't anybody see him? And how did he get past the ANBU barriers? What was taken?"

"Nobody saw him and he has left behind no chakra signature, Hokage-sama. To top it all, nothing was taken."

"Scent?"

"Covered himself with pepper."

"Do we have any leads, then?"

"Yes, Hokage-sama. His handwriting."

"What! How?"

"He left behind a note saying 'I was here' in all the three locations."

"Have you had that analyzed?"

"Written with his left hand. Very shaky. Ran it for matches in records. No matches. Paper and pen used are both easily available everywhere."

"Any idea how he got past the ANBU barriers?"

His secretary shook her head.

"Well then, nothing else can be done except to improve our defenses. Ask all three of them to double their guard. Pass on the information to all the other clans as well. he might strike there as well"

"Hai. Hokage-sama."

The perpetrator must have very skilled to have managed all of this but why leave that note? Why bring attention to his escapades? He didn't know. Getting up, Sarutobi made his way to his own private collection. There was a note in there as well.

* * *

The Previous Night

_"You sure are lucky that you have me to help you. You would never have managed this otherwise."_

"I know. I already thanked you. Stop showing off."

_"I was not showing off. I was reminding you of my contribution. Yo-"_

"Ya. Ya. I know. I owe you one. I got it. Now just shut up and keep sensing."

_"Be polite or I might even let you get caught."_

"If I get caught, I'm screwed.", Naruto said as he worked on opening the lock of the door to the Jiji's personal library.

_"If those blasted Uchiha, the Hyuuga AND the ANBU didn't have anything on the Kage Bunshin, then how can you expect this old man to have anything."_

"Because he is called The Professor for a reason. Now shut will you. I need to concentrate. Picking locks is not easy."

Naruto was hard at work at the lock with two lockpicks in hand. In a couple of minutes, the lock clicked open and Naruto slipped into the room. As he entered, the sheer number of books and scrolls amazed him. This wasn't a private collection. It was a private library of sorts. He started to inspect the shelves. Just like in the other three libraries everything was meticulously ordered. Moving over to the ninjutsu section, he pulled out the first scroll and started searching. He found what he wanted in a scroll of Kinjutsu a couple of hours later. With practiced ease, he replicated the contents of the scroll into an empty one which he had brought, slipped the replica into his jacket, replaced everything else back to their original positions and slipped out of the room but not before leaving a not saying 'I was here'.

_"I don't see why you insist on doing that. They will search for you tomorrow and they might even find you."_

"Nah, I'm helping them. If a kid like me can get in, then they need to improve security."

_"Oy, what do you mean a kid like you? You only managed this thanks my awesome sensing skills."_

"For the last time, I am grateful for your help. Now let's get to the training grounds and learn this."

* * *

2 Days Later

"Oy, Kurama-san", Naruto called excitedly.

Naruto was face down in the middle of a training ground.

_"What do you want? I just went off to sleep. It better be good."_

"I managed to learn the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and the other jutsu which I came across in the ANBU llibrary."

_"What was the other one again?"_

"A variation of the Shunshin no Jutsu."

_"You don't know the original in the first place. How did you manage to learn a variation?"_

"I got the original down too. The variation is exactly the same thing but without any smoke. And that isn't even the coolest thing. Whatever any Kage Bunshin I make learns returns to me when they dispel. Isn't that awesome? I can train so much faster now."

_"How did you discover that?"_

"It was written in the scroll. The jutsu was created for information gathering in hostile areas. It's forbidden because when I create clones, my chakra gets distributed equally amongst them. That's fine for me but it's really dangerous for people who don't have as much chakra as I do."

_"You woke me up just to tell me all this. You could have waited."_

"No. I wanted to ask you if you think it is possible to do jutsus without handsigns?"

_"It should be. As far I can see, you use handsigns to help mold your chakra in the right way. With enough practice, I presume that you should be able to skip them and mold it own your own."_

"That's what I thought. I'm going to practice now until I can do the shunshin jutsu without handsigns. You go back to your sleep now."

_"Bah."_

* * *

8 Months Later

Naruto and Gai were doing pushups at a ferocious rate in training ground 27.

"998...,999...1000. That's enough for today, Naruto-kun." said Gai, as he collapsed to the ground. Naruto lay panting next him. The noonday sun was shining directly into his eyes but he was too tired to move.

"Come on. Let's go eat something, Naruto-kun. We have been at it since 4:30 in the morning."

"You say that as if we haven't been doing it every day for the past eight months."

They both slowly got up and stretched..

"By the way, I won't be able to come for a week."

"Why? You have a mission again?"

"Ya. A team of genin got killed in the Forest of Death during the chuunin exams. I have to go along with their jounin instructor and help in taking their bodies back to their village."

"Forest of Death? What's that?"

"You don't know? That's the restricted training ground 44. Although why it's called a training ground, I don't know. It's filled with all kinds of giant beasts and poisonous plants. It's a very dangerous place. I can even think of a few jounin who wouldn't be able to survive the place."

"Then why the hell do you send genins in there?"

"The genins have to avoid all the dangers and get to the central tower. That is not too difficult. Most of the animals leave you alone if you don't bother them. What I meant earlier was that even jounins would be hard-pressed to survive if they took on the beasts head on. That is of course, only if they don't use ninjutsu or genjutsu."

Naruto's was excited. Very excited. This sounded the perfect pace to test out his swordsmanship. Kurama-san had said that the fastest way to improve was to survive a life or death situation. He would definitely face that in the Forest of Death, if it was anything like what Gai-sensei said it was. His face split into a devious grin.

"Oy, why are you smiling like that, Naruto-kun. I don't like it. You aren't thinking of going into the Forest of Death are you? I forbid it."

Naruto schooled his features into an innocent look. Thank god Gai-sensei was so gullible.

"No. No. Of course not. I'm not stupid, you know."

"Thank god. Let's go eat something. It's past noon and I'm starving."

They both set off for the village.

"You know Naruto-kun, to become a shinobi you need more than just strength and speed which is all you have been training for the last eight months. You need to learn ninjutsu and taijutsu as well. I am willing to teach you those as well, if you want."

"I train more after I'm done with you, you know. I already know both."

"What! You train more after our morning workout? That much workload is simply too much for a boy like you. You'll damage your body."

"Nah. I'm fine. I have lots of stamina. Thanks for offering to teach me anyway. I'm grateful. Now let's go faster. I'm hungry and Ichiraku's is waiting."

Gai watched as the boy raced off. He really seemed to have unlimited stamina. Must be because of the Kyuubi. He took after the boy.

"Yosh! I will not lose to you in a race yet, Naruto-kun. I am still youthful. Yosh!"

* * *

That Night

Naruto crept towards the Forest of Death dodging the four chuunin guards stationed there. It was surrounded by a really tall fence. Tall enough that he couldn't jump over it normally. It must be electrocuted if it kept all the animals in. There were no trees near the fence to use as a boost to clear the fence. He had no choice then. He forced a lot of chakra to his feet and jumped. He just cleared the top. He landed on the other side and rolled a couple of times to deaden the impact. He stood up and drew his swords and looked around. There seemed to be no sign of life anywhere near him.

"Kurama-san, wake up. If this place is as dangerous as Gai-sensei says it is, then I'll need your help."

_"You shouldn't have come here if it is that dangerous."_

"You're the one who told me look for life or death situations to get better."

_"I told that you would improve a lot after your first life or death struggle. I didn't tell you to go looking for one."_

"Well now that I'm already here, it won't hurt to have a look around. This looks like the perfect place to train my stealth."

* * *

3 Weeks Later

Naruto jumped backwards off a branch and dodged the giant spider attacking him. He landed on the ground and drew one of his swords as the spider launched itself at him. He waited until it was almost upon him before he slashed. His stroke cleaved the spider completely into two. Panting, he sheathed his sword and started walking away. Never attack a spider nest again unless he wanted to die. He had been forced to use Kurama-san's chakra to escape the place with his life. He looked around trying to get his bearings. He was very near gate 23. He made his way towards it stealthily, hoping not to encounter any more of the beasts he may have enraged with his nightly trysts into the forest.

He reached the gate without incident and turned towards the village. He had only gone a few steps when he sensed a presence near him. He jumped just as three kunai struck the spot he had been an instant ago. Twisting in the air, he threw a couple of his own kunai in the direction of the attacker. He saw a short woman with violet hair and wearing a large overcoat dodge them by jumping backwards onto a branch. Just as his foot touched the ground, he disappeared. He appeared behind the woman with his sword drawn. He aimed for her neck with the flat of his blade intending to knock her out. Instead, the woman blocked his blade with ease and countered with a punch to his stomach. That was new. Most of the animals weren't fast enough to keep up with his speed let alone counter him but this woman had managed to counter even his shunshin. He flew backwards, hit a tree and landed heavily on the ground. He was up instantly. A month in the forest had taught him that if he stayed down to catch his breath, he would be dead. He looked up at the woman and smiled. This was going to be fun. He was planning his next move when the woman started talking with a smirk on her face.

"You're really good, kid. Are you the one who has been running about in the forest and making all the animals angry?"

Should he reply or attack? The woman was wearing a Konoha headband. She wasn't an enemy then. He could get into trouble if he attacked a comrade. He decided to reply but he didn't let his guard down.

"Yeah."

"Nice work, kid. Most people don't have the guts and more importantly the skills to do that."

He waited for her continue. As she looked at him her smirk widened. She started walking towards the village.

"Relax. I'm not going to kill you. Come on let's get back to the village."

He sheathed his sword and joined her but he remained wary of her. She looked sideways at him.

"Good. You still haven't let your guard down. You don't blindly trust people. I like that."

Naruto remained silent.

"Oy brat. Don't you have a tongue?"

"I have no clue what to say to you. What am I supposed to say to a random stranger who attacks me anyway?"

"You could start with your name, I suppose. I'm Anko."

"I'm Naruto Uzumaki."

Her eyes widened slightly when she heard his name.

"So wanna spar? From the look of surprise you had when I countered your attack I guess you haven't ever fought somebody better than you."

"No."

"Come on then. It'll be a nice experience for you. Besides I'm bored and beating the crap out of a cute kid like you is the perfect way to pass time."

* * *

Much later, Anko and Naruto were walking slowly through the village. Naruto looked as if he had been to hell and back. His clothes were cut in many places and covered in blood. He was receiving the usual glares but they refused to meet his eyes now when he looked back at them. Maybe it was the blood. He presumed that they were imagining it to be someone else's. How wrong they were. Anko was sadistic as hell and seemed to enjoy making him bleed. He noticed that some of the people were glaring at her as well. Was it because she was with him?

"Kid, you're really, really good. It's only because I'm awesome that I beat you. So tell me, who is your sensei?"

"No one. I learnt everything myself."

"That's what I thought. Your style is deadly but very unrefined."

Unrefined? Damn! How the hell was he supposed to fix that? Through more combat, he supposed. Suddenly, the woman stopped in front of a building and stretched lithely, turning quite a few heads.

"This is me. See ya."

"Thanks for the spar, nee-chan. It was really helpful. Bye ."

He started walking off.

"Hey kid. I had a lot of fun beating the shit out of you today. From now on you're my official sparring partner. See ya soon."

She went into her building before he could reply. He gaped open mouthed at the spot she had been standing for a few seconds before turning and leaving for Ichiraku. He groaned. First Gai-sensei and now her. How the hell did he only manage to meet crazy people?

* * *

3 years later

Naruto sat in the Jiji's office waiting for him to speak. He had been summoned specifically to the office for something. Sarutobi was as usual smoking his pipe and staring out of the window. Why did he always do that? Was it supposed to impress him or something?

"So Naruto, you will become 9 years old in two weeks, yes?"

"Yeah"

"That is also the standard age for admitting children into the ninja academy. So do you want to be enrolled?"

"Of course."

"Good. Ok then. I will have all the necessary preparations made. You will start in two weeks time."

Naruto's face split into his trademark grin.

"Listen Naruto, many of the children will be from shinobi families and may have received some training from their parents. You will have to work hard to keep up."

Good, so it had worked. Naruto had been trying to keep the Jiji from knowing that he had been training for the last four years. He knew the old man would have interfered if he had found out.

"I'm sure that I'll be able to manage, Jiji."

"That's it then. You can go now. Meet me again in a couple of days. I will let give you all the additional details that you may require."

Naruto got up and left the office with a giant grin in his face. He was finally joining the academy. He was one step closer to his goal now. He would be able to meet other kids like him. This was going to be really fun.

* * *

I don't plan to make any pairings for now. Let's see what happens in the future.


	4. Chapter 3: Academy Days

Chapter 3: Academy Days

* * *

Naruto woke up early on the day of the entrance ceremony. His body was shivering with both anticipation and nervousness for what was about to come. He was going to meet kids of his own age for the first time today. They wouldn't know about his jinchuriki status. Would they talk to him or would they follow their parents' lead and ignore him? How strong would he be compared to the other kids in the class? He sighed. The only way to find out was by actually going. He wondered what he should wear. He didn't own anything formal so he stuck to his usual clothing. A black t-shirt worn over fishnet and a pair of black pants. He considered taking his weapons but decided against it. He would look odd wearing swords at the entrance ceremony. He didn't want to stand out more than he already did.

He slipped out of his window and took to the roofs. The rush of the wind against his face calmed him down somewhat. He made his way over to the building opposite to the Academy and looked down at the square. The place was filled with people. The crowd mainly consisted of children being accompanied by their parents. He watched as a father held his son's hand and led him though the Academy gate. A feeling of loneliness filled him. He stared at the sight for a few more seconds before shaking himself. If an enemy had attacked him just then, he would have been dead. With that sobering thought he jumped down to join the milling crowd.

After a lot of jostling and shouting from a pair of shinobi, the crowd eventually organized itself. All the children stood in two lines in front of a large makeshift stage. The parents milled about at the edge of the compound. The Sandaime walked onto the stage along with 20 shinobi all wearing chuunin vests. He guessed that they were the Academy instructors.

The Jiji started off into what was definitely going to be one of his boring long-winded speeches. Naruto's attention began to wander. He looked around and counted that there were around 100 entrants. He wondered how many of them would actually graduate. A burst of applause, mainly from the parents, informed him that the Jiji's speech was over. He watched as the shinobi to the Jiji's right took over the podium. He was a shinobi of average height and build with a horizontal scar running across his nose.

"Students and parents can now leave. The children have to report to their classrooms tomorrow at 8 in the morning. The lists of classroom allotment have been put up on the notice board. You are requested to check the list if you haven't already. All students will be tested tomorrow to see their current skill levels so they are requested to come prepared. That is all."

As soon as he finished, most of the crowd went over to the notice boards. Naruto avoided the crowd like a plague and walked towards the old man. He wanted to know about the test that was to be held the next day but before he could reach him, the old man was assailed by a few civilian parents.

"...could you let that boy join? I will not let my son be in the same classroom as the demon. And thanks to your ridiculous laws I can't tell him what that thing is. All I can tell him is to avoid the demon but my son never listens to me. Who knows what that thing will do to him?"

So they were talking about him.

"He's right. What if he attacks my daughter? I will not accept this."

"He must be removed from the Academy at once."

"Enough. As you can see, none of the shinobi parents have a problem with Naruto. So I don't see why you do? Besides my decision is final. I have already overruled the civilian council. Your petty arguments are not going to make me change my mind. Now leave me. I have better things to do than listen to than your pointless complaints." Sarutobi growled with unrestrained menace in his voice. They got the hint and hastily backed away. Naruto slipped away before the Jiji saw him. He didn't want him to know that he had overheard the conversation.

He looked around for a few seconds and found what he wanted. With his hand in his pockets, he casually walked behind a tree. As soon as he was hidden from view, he created a Kage Bunshin and Henged himself into a rat. The Bunshin walked on as if nothing had happened and he scurried away towards the exit. As soon as he was a safe distance from the Academy, he scurried into an alley and transformed back. He still couldn't believe that this trick managed to shake off his ANBU tail every single time. Smirking to himself, he left for the Forest of Death to work off his tension.

* * *

Iruka was really nervous. The Hokage had summoned him to come to his office and for the life of him he couldn't think of the reason why. Maybe the fact that he had punished a council member's son last week was coming to bite him in the ass now. Damn. He had been doing his job and was trying to be fair to all the students. The kid had misbehaved so he had punished him. Who thought that he would have complained to his father.

As he reached the door, the ANBU guards nodded at him allowing him to enter. The Hokage was reading a book when he entered and looked up when he hear the door open. With a smile, he motioned to him to take a chair. Iruka's apprehension lessened. As far as he knew the Hokage wasn't a sadistic person. So if he was smiling at him, then he was most probably not going to get screwed.

"Iruka, I called you here to talk to you about Naruto."

"Naruto? You mean the..." His voice trailed off. The Hokage nodded at him.

"I was the one who made sure that he was in your class."

"What! Why?"

"Because I know that you would never let personal feelings come before your duty. You would have treated the boy fairly even if you hated him."

"I don't hate him. I'm a shinobi. Not a civilian. I know about seals. The boy is at no fault for what happened to my parents."

The Hokage smiled again.

"Most shinobi know that but yet they still shun him. That is what I wanted to talk to you about. Naruto is strong. Very strong. He is past chuunin level already."

"What? Impossible. He is only 9. How could h-"

"Yet that is the truth. However strength isn't everything. He has been alone all his life. He has no friends. He tries to fend off the loneliness by training all the time. This is not good for the boy. I want you to help him. You understand his feelings better than anybody else. He has all the reasons to hate all of us and seek revenge instead he trains hard and strives to prove himself to us. I will not let his sacrifice go in vain. He does not know how to trust others and have faith in his comrades. He believes only in his own strength. I want you to change that. I want you to teach him how to have fun and be happy."

"How am I supposed to do something like that?"

"You are the best teacher I have. I have faith in you. You'll figure something out."

Iruka looked up at the ceiling and was lost in thought for some time. He then nodded to himself and got up to leave.

"I'll try my best Hokage-sama."

"Oh by the way Iruka, don't tell Naruto that I know how strong he is. He thinks he has pulled the wool over my eyes. I want to see his expression for myself when he finds out how wrong he is."

The Hokage let out a few amused chuckles. Iruka walked away shaking his head.

* * *

Naruto woke up late the next morning. He had come back really late from his training last night. He was supposed to have been at the Academy 10 minutes ago. He got up and changed out of his bloody clothes. Exiting by his window, he started a chain of shunshins which brought him to the Academy within a minute. He looked at the map installed near the entrance to help the newcomers. His classroom was the second one from the right on the first floor. He looked up and saw that the window was open. Was jumping through windows allowed? With a shrug, Naruto jumped.

There was an adult standing in front and talking to the students. He must be the instructor thought Naruto as he landed smack on top of him. Damn. His plan had been to keep a low profile. Not jump on his teacher on the first day. He looked down and saw it was the same guy who had made the announcement yesterday. He got off with a sheepish expression on his face.

"Um...sorry. Didn't see where I was going."

The man got up and glared down at him.

"And would you mind telling me why you chose to come in from the window in the first place?"

"Um...I was late and I saw the window was open and so..."

The man sighed.

"Late on his first day. Kids these days... Never mind. We had just finished with introductions and were about to move outside to test taijutsu. Why don't you introduce yourself and then we can go outside." he said with a smile.

All the kids were looking at him with an expression of shock on their faces. He had just jumped through the window onto the sensei and he hadn't been punished. Whispers broke out in the classroom. Naruto scratched his head nervously.

"Um... My name is Uzumaki Naruto. Likes...well I like ramen. Dislikes...um...don't really have any. Hobbies...none I guess. Dream for the future...my dream is to become the Hokage."

The whispers died down. Most of the kids were staring at him but a few broke out into laughter. A kid with red hair laughed the loudest.

"You? The Hokage? Please. My dad told me that you were trash of the worst kind and you would never be able to accomplish anything. There is no way someone like you can become someone cool like the Hokage."

Naruto looked at the kid, raised one eyebrow and yawned.

"Well then, too bad for you that I don't give a royal fuck what your father thinks about me. That's my dream and you can't do shit about it. You can tell your father that I dare him to say that to me face-to-face."

Gasps spread out among the room. Great. His plan to stay out of the limelight was up in flames in the first five minutes itself and now he was going to be chewed out by the instructor. Way to go.

"Asano-kun, I will not have words like that spoken in my classroom again. I am going to talk to your parents about this. And you Naruto. I will not tolerate such filthy words again, you hear me? Now class, let's move."

Naruto looked up in shock. The man had taken his side and defended him. He only got chewed out for his language. Shaking his head in disbelief and cursing Anko for corrupting him, he followed the rest of class out.

"Ok listen everybody, I am now going to test our taijutsu. You see this circle? You have to fight your opponent inside it. You win if you score more hits or force your opponent outside the circle. Each spar will last for a maximum of 5 minutes. Understood? Now who volunteers for the first spar?"

Naruto hung back in the crowd to observe. Naruto watched the first pair with anticipation and then disbelief. They were pathetic. The second pair was worse and the third didn't even know a taijutsu stance. What the hell had he been worried for? They all sucked. There was no way he was even going to be able to reduce himself to their level. He sighed and then looked up when gasps spread all around him. A kid with the Uchiha symbol on his back was beating the crap out of his opponent. Many girls cooed at him and whispers of 'Uchiha genius' started spreading amongst the children. Naruto sighed again. The Uchiha was so full of openings, he could have beaten him with his hands tied and his eyes blinded.

He slipped out of the crowd and walked up to a tree and looked at it for a few seconds. Then he banged his against it 3 times.

"Sensei" he called out, "I quit my match."

Then he sat down and started feigning sleep whilst ignoring all the looks he was receiving. His plan had been to stay in the middle of the class and not draw attention to himself but these guys were so weak he couldn't even do that. He was going to have to sleep through every class and test now. He cursed the Jiji for passing the law that prevented early graduation. Well, the only good thing was that he got more time and energy to train on his own after Academy hours. He opened his eyes when he sensed a presence in front of him. He looked up and saw a kid with a spiky ponytail.

"Sensei" the kid called out, "I was his opponent." With that he sat down next to him and went to sleep. Naruto shrugged and closed his eyes too.

* * *

Iruka watched Naruto as he walked off. He couldn't really blame the kid if the Hokage was correct about his strength but was banging his head really necessary? His eyes widened as another kid joined Naruto. Wasn't he a Nara? The kid sat down and went to sleep. He tried very hard not to facepalm.

"Oy you two. Get up right now and get back here."

"Sensei, everyone is too strong for me. I can't win against them and I won't become better by watching them so let me sleep." said Naruto.

Iruka twitched. The Nara just slept on.

"Both of you back here now!" he roared.

He twitched again. Both of them were dragging their feet as they walked back. This was going to be a long three years.

* * *

A stampede of sorts jolted Naruto from his sleep. All the kids were leaving the classroom. He looked up at the time and guessed that it was lunchtime. The kid with the spiky ponytail was waking up next to him.

"Where's Chouji?" he asked.

"Who?"

"Chouji. The guy who was eating chips throughout class."

"Went out I guess."

"Troublesome. Help me find him?"

"Sure. Don't have anything else to do anyway."

"Don't you want to eat lunch?" he asked as he pulled out a lunch-bag from somewhere.

"Don't have any. Besides I never eat at this time."

The kid turned around and looked at Naruto.

"Why?"

"I'm an orphan. I eat whenever I feel like."

"Here. You can share with me. My mom gave me too much. Name's Shikamaru by the way."

"Naruto. No, It's okay. Your mom packed it for you. Not for me."

"Troublesome. I told you there's too much. Have some. If I don't finish it my mom will eat my head when I get home."

"Um... okay if you say so."

They walked out into the park and almost ran into Chouji.

"There you are Shikamaru. I thought you would be still waiting for me in classroom. I went to get my lunch from mom. She was waiting at the gate." he said holding up a huge bag.

"It's okay. This is Naruto. He forgot his lunch so share some of yours."

"Sure. Hi, I'm Chouji. Now let's go eat somewhere. How about that tree?"

"Works for me."

* * *

Naruto got up as the bell signaling the end of classes rang. He made his way to the window and was just about to leave through it when he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Iruka-sensei.

"What is with you and windows? Come on use the door like a normal person."

Iruka led the way out. As Naruto neared the gate, he saw parents gathered there to take their children home.

"That is why I wanted to use the window." Naruto muttered. Iruka-sensei looked down at him with an odd expression on his face.

"Come on, let's go somewhere to eat. My treat. I noticed that you didn't eat a proper lunch. You must be hungry. Do you like yakiniku?"

"Never eaten it."

"You'll like it then. Come on."

* * *

1 Week Later

Naruto stood knocking hard at a door. The door opened revealing Anko.

"What do want kid?" she asked as she let him in.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me how pathetic the kids at the Academy were?"

"You never asked brat." she said ignoring the glare Naruto was directing at her.

"Forget pathetic, they're so bad I could beat all of them using just my little finger."

"Oy if you came here just to complain, then get out."

Naruto ignored her and sank into her couch.

"So what are you going to do? Show them how good you really are and hope the Sandaime overlooks his own law to let you graduate early?"

"Hell no. There's is Uchiha in my class. Among all those pathetics, this guy is the least pathetic. Everyone is calling him a genius and most of the girls flock around him as if they want to marry him or something." said Naruto with a shudder. "There's no way I want that. I'm going to sleep through every test and exam till the graduation test."

"Wait, you're saying the girls in your class are after this Uchiha?"

"Weren't you listening? Yeah. Why?"

A devious grin spread over Anko's face. Naruto started sweating when he saw it. That definitely couldn't be anything good.

"Naruto-kun, I think it's time Anko-neechan gave you the talk"

* * *

2 Weeks Later

"Iruka-sensei," Naruto called as he demolished his seventh bowl of ramen.

"Yeah, what?"

"Why are you doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"Taking me out for dinner and spending time with me."

"Because I want to."

"Huh?"

A faraway look came into Iruka's eyes and he was silent for a while.

"Naruto, I'm an orphan like you. I know what it feels like to be alone. I don't you to make the same mistakes I made."

He put some money down on the table and got up to leave.

"Which were?"

Damn. He had almost made a cool exit. He didn't get chances to do that often.

"To grow up to become a characterless boring person who likes to work."

"Come on. You're not that bad...Um... Well actually you are. You even work while making dinner for yourself. Hey wait. That's it."

"What?"

"Didn't you tell me that most shinobi develop some quirks to cope with the job?"

"What's your point?"

"Your quirk is working. You work to handle the stress of work. Wait, that doesn't make sense. And anyway what stress can you get from teaching kids anyway?"

Iruka twitched.

"Enough. You're being annoying as hell. I'm off. Don't be late tomorrow."

Iruka turned to leave when Naruto let out a cry of inspiration.

"That's it. I've decided on my quirks. Thanks sensei. You're a genius."

Naruto raced away before he could ask him what he had meant by that. Iruka thought about what he had said last and then hit himself. Oh god, what had he done?

* * *

Next Day

"Naruto, you're late to class by 1 hour. What happened?"

"You see sensei, yesterday on my way home I met a man who told me that he always overslept. Deciding that his need was greater than mine, I gave him my alarm clock and so I overslept today."

Iruka gaped at him. Oh god, he had created a monster yesterday.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi sneezed.

* * *

1 Year Later

Iruka walked into the Hokage's office to see the old man hard at work on his paperwork. The Hokage set down his pen, got up and walked to the window as Iruka sat down.

"Iruka, I called you here to congratulate you. The last few times I have spoken to Naruto, he has been completely different from what he used to be. He was so loud and cheerful. Just like his mother. Good work. He's finally acting like how a boy of his age should. Has he made any friends?"

"I didn't do anything much actually. Just took him out for food a few times and talked to him. All he needed was some decent company. He mostly opened up by himself after he started interacting with other children. He has made some friends. He's always seen with the Nara heir and the Akimichi heir. He also spends some time with the Hyuuga, Aburame and Inuzuka heirs. However Hokaeg-sama, there is one thing though."

"What is it?"

"He is consistently last in every single test and he refuses to take part in the practicals. Either he is completely stupid which I know he isn't or he is holding back for some reason. I can't for the life of me figure out which."

"Humour him for the time being. His true skills will come out some time or the other. Now go. I have to get back to this dastardly paperwork."

Iruka walked out imagining a restless Naruto doing paperwork and started laughing. The ANBU guards looked at him oddly before shaking their heads. Spontaneous laughter was among least crazy things they had seen shinobi do.

* * *

1 Year Later

Naruto waited at Konoha's gate at the crack of dawn on a Saturday. He trained with Gai only on weekends since he had joined the Academy. Getting tired of waiting, he walked to the gatekeepers booth and looked inside. As usual both of the gatekeepers were asleep.

"Oy! Izumo-san, Kotetsu-san wake up. Gai-sensei will be here any minute and I don't want to hear shouts of unyouthfulness so early in the morning."

Both of them jolted awake and looked around blearily. Kotetsu scratched his head and flipped him which earned him a knock on the head from Izumo.

"You didn't have to do that kid."

Naruto looked at him incredulously.

'You seriously don't mind getting up to shouts about unyouthfulness?'

"Sorry. You're right. That would suck. Thanks I guess." Kotetsu said sheepishly.

"Why do you too always take this job anyways? It's got to be the most boring job in the village."

"Nah kid. Wait till you have to do D-ranks. Besides this job is a honourable duty which is only given to the most trusted of chuunin" said Kotetsu proudly.

"That's bullshit. We're here because this piece of shit is too lazy to do anything else and thanks to him I get stuck here every day." said Izumo.

"Why don't you just leave him hanging?" asked Naruto.

Izumo's answer was lost as Gai arrived at the gate accompanied by a miniature version of him.

"Oh god, he multplied." said Naruto as Izumo and Kotetsu snickered at him.

"Good morning, my most youthful pupil. Please meet Rock Lee. He is in my genin team and will now train with us. Lee, if you want to accomplish your dream then you must work atleast as hard as Naruto-kun here. He has been doing this for 5 years now. You have a lot of catching up to do."

"Yosh, Naruto-kun it is an honour to meet you. Gai-sensei has told me a lot abou-"

At that moment, Naruto made one of the biggest mistakes of his life. He tuned out Lee and started comparing his appearances with Gai's. When he realized that Lee had stopped talking and was looking at him as if he was expecting an answer, he said, "Huh? You said something?"

"Yosh Naruto-kun, what an unbelievably cool and hip attitude you have. I henceforth proclaim you as my eternal rival."

Izumo and Kotetsu's snickers changed into full blown laughter on seeing Naruto's face.

"Are you two related or something?"

"Yosh I am honored that you consider me worthy enough to be Gai-sensei's son but the answer to your question is no."

"That's enough Lee. It is good that you have found an eternal rival but you are way too early to challenge him. Now let's begin. Yosh."

Gai and Lee disappeared leaving behind a cloud of dust, a confused Naruto and a laughing Izumo and Kotetsu.

"He's got to be an illegitimate child or something." muttered Naruto.

"Are you crazy? Can you even imagine Maito Gai doing that?" Kotetsu wheezed trying to control his laughter.

"You never know. Alcohol can bring down all barriers." said Izumo.

"Alcohol overcame THAT? I have got to try it sometime." muttered Naruto.

"Oy you're too young to drink and on that note you're too young to know about sex as well. What have you been doing?" Izumo asked getting up and coming out of the booth as Kotetsu watched on.

Naruto muttered something in a low voice.

"What's that? Speak louder."

"I said that Anko-neechan already gave me the talk. You don't need to do it." said a blushing Naruto.

"Anko? As in Anko Mitarashi? Are you saying Anko Mitarashi gave you the talk? Kid I feel truly sorry for you."

"Look at him blush Izumo. So Naruto-kun do you find any of the girls in your class pretty?"

With a squeak Naruto took off after Gai and Lee leaving behind a roaring Izumo and Kotetsu.

* * *

1 Year Later

"Oy, Naruto! You sure you'll be okay today? I have never ever seen you fight before and now you turn up on the day of the graduation exam with a couple of swords. Sure you can handle those without cutting yourself? And how come you're on time today. You're always late." Kiba growled at a yawning Naruto.

"Hmm? You say something?"

"Oh fuck off you annoying bastard. You heard exactly what I said. Can you use those swords?"

"Maybe," Naruto drawled.

"Damn you, yo-"

"Relax Kiba. Stop being troublesome. You know he's not going to tell you anything unless he wants to. You're better off worrying about yourself." said Shikamaru from beside Naruto on the last row.

"I was just trying to help a friend. If he do-"

"Sorry Kiba. I was just kidding. I'll be fine. Don't worry about me." said Naruto just as Iruka-sensei walked into the classroom.

"Hello everyone. I hope all of you rested properly and are ready for this exam. First you will be tested on your taijutsu. Then your weapon skills and finally your ninjutsu. I will be conducting the tests for classroom B. Mizuki-sensei will be the one taking yours. Good luck to all of you. Now you should head outside. Mizuki-sensei will be waiting there for you."

There was a general scramble for the door. Iruka looked at Naruto and mouthed 'Good Luck' to him. Naruto smirked confidently back at him. Iruka twitched and then walked off shaking his head.

Naruto hung back with Shikamaru and Chouji as Kiba rushed off towards the front of the line. Chouji was speed-eating chips which was a sure sign of his nervousness.

"Rather than me, shouldn't you be worried Shikamaru? Do you even know taijutsu?"

"I don't really care whether I pass or not. Thinking about it is too troublesome."

"Whatever man. I just don't think your mom will be too happy if you fail."

"You don't need to remind me. Now I'm going for a nap. Want to come?"

"Nah. I think I'll watch today."

"Your call." said Shikamaru as he walked off towards the trees. Naruto slipped into the crowd and took up a position at the front to watch. From the original 50 students the class strength had dwindled down to 35. He watched as Mizuki put the kids through their paces one by one. Most of them were still as bad as ever. All they ever followed was the basic Academy taijutsu style, something Naruto hadn't even bothered to learn, and stuck to it without even considering changing anything. How they were going to survive missions, he did not know. He supposed that their respective jounin senseis would whip them into shape before taking them for missions involving combat.

Naruto's name was called. He walked casually into the circle and stood there waiting. Mizuki looked at him and sneered. Putting his hand into his pocket, he removed a kunai.

"For you brat, I'm going to hold a very special test. Let's see how you hold up against this."

All the kids watched them with bated breath.

"You should put that back before you hurt yourself."

"Silence. I will not be insulted by a demon like you. I'll send you to join your parents in hell. That is what you deserve and what they deserved as well for giving birth to something as foul as you."

Naruto stiffened and all laziness left his body. He placed one hand on the handle of his sword.

"Take back what you said about my parents now or I'll kill you where you stand. My parents were heroes." said Naruto his voice containing barely controlled anger.

"I'll do no such thing, demon."

"Die then."

Naruto disappeared and appeared in front of Mizuki. He drew his sword and was inches away from stabbing a stunned Mizuki when a gloved hand caught his blade. The hand belonged to an ANBU wearing an ox mask.

"That's enough, Uzumaki. Sheath your weapon now."

"Ox-san, I'm warning you. Get away from me before I do make you do so."

"Boy, I have been watching you since you were six. I know all your abilities. Now sheath your sword."

"Wrong. You know only what I let you see. I have been slipping away from your watch to train for years now. I'm warning you again."

Ox tightened his grip on Naruto's sword. Naruto streamed electricity into his blade. Ox left the sword instantly and stumbled back. Naruto spun in an instant and stabbed his Ox with his Raiton imbued sword. Ox fell back paralyzed. Naruto spun again, drawing his second sword to attack Mizuki when three more ANBU appeared around him and held kunai against him.

"That's enough, Uzumaki. Stand down."

Mizuki finally jolted out of his shock and sprang back with a cry. He stared at Naruto for a few seconds and then tried to run away but was stopped by yet another ANBU.

"You guys keep popping up like rabbits don't you?" drawled Naruto without any semblance of fear. The rest of the class watched on with shock and awe until a pink haired girl broke the silence.

"Hey Naruto, stop trying to look as cool as Sasuke-kun."

"Shut up, you pathetic excuse for a kunoichi. Most of you are so weak, it is an insult to even call you ninja. You fangirls disgust me the most. And as for your precious Sasuke-kun, I can beat him without even lifting a finger."

Naruto released a massive amount of killer intent focused completely on Sasuke. Sasuke gasped and fell to his knees, shaking and clutching his heart as if he wasn't able to breathe.

"What's wrong, Sasuke-kun? Can't handle a little killer intent?"

_"That's enough Naruto. This isn't like you to give into your anger and to act rashly."_

"But Kur-"

One of the ANBU surrounding Naruto, hit him on the head with the butt of a kunai.

"That's enough. Now come with us to the Hokage."

* * *

"How could you attack your own comrades like that?" Sarutobi roared at the boy sitting in front of him.

"I'm so-"

"And then after incapacitating an ANBU, you direct killer intent at an Academy student."

"He's my ag-"

"Quiet. Don't try that on me. I know exactly how strong you are. I know about Gai, Anko and the Forest of Death. Just because you have power does not mean you can misuse it like that."

"How the hell do you know that and I said I'm sorry."

"I have my ways and your sorry doesn't cut it. Turning on your own comrade is the worst thing a shinobi can do. Do y-"

"I know Jiji. I know exactly how wrong my actions were and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done it and would take it back if I could. I understand and I'm truly sorry. It was just that Mizuki insulted my parents. I couldn't take that sitting down."

"So you attacked him?"

"I was just going to scare him. Nothing major."

Sarutobi sighed and rubbed his face. He was getting too old for this. The boy was truly sorry for what he had done. His face showed that he was speaking the truth. Now he could either punish him or let it go. The civilian council was going to be baying for his blood for sure. He massaged his sore neck. Managing the council was something he didn't enjoy. He would just have to chastise the boy some more and then let him go.

"Naruto, your parents would have been ashamed by yo-"

Naruto shot up from his chair in anger.

"Yeah about that. I have been waiting for years to see when you were going to get round to telling me about my parents. Why did you have to hide that my father was the Yondaime?"

Sarutobi's pipe fell out of his mouth. How had he found out? Who had told him? He had taken every precaution to prevent this.

"How do you know?" he breathed.

"Answer my question. Why did you hide it?"

"To protect you from your father's enemies."

"For what? So that I can live a life in which everyone hates me. A life in which the village I protect curses my very existence. You could have just given me more guards. I'm sure you could have protected me from Iwa if you wanted to. And one more thing. When were you going to tell me that I was a Jinchuriki? After I died? You force me to live a hated existence and don't even tell me why."

All the blood left Sarutobi's face as he heard Naruto's words. Tears were now flowing down Naruto's face.

"I used to think that the reason the village hated me was because I had done something wrong. I was 3 when they first tried to kill me and I didn't even know why. What right did you have to hide my parents identities from me like this and then curse me to a shit life like this? The only reason I didn't tell you all this before was because of all the times you took care of me when I was small. But now you use my parents' name as a tool to punish me? Why don't you try to not hit back when you're insulted every single day of your life? Fuck you and your lies, you bloody old man."

Naruto whirled around and stormed out of the office. Sarutobi stood as still as a statue staring at the door of the office. Tears dripped out of old man's eyes. He looked out of the window at the stone, carved face of the Yondaime.

"Oh Minato, how I have failed you." he said with a voice filled with sorrow.

* * *

Naruto stood on the Yondaime's head and looked down at the village of Konoha. He used his sleeve to wipe his face and then starting gathering chakra to his throat. Using chakra, he amplified his voice to a level which could be heard in the entire village.

"Listen up all of you. I am Naruto Uzumaki, the Jinchuuriki of Kurama the Kyuubi and the son of the Yondaime Hokage Minato Namikaze and Uzumaki Kushina. I will become the strongest shinobi the Leaf has ever produced and I will definitely become Hokage of this village."

He cut off the flow of chakra and shunshined away from the spot.

* * *

Gai had been sitting at home reading a scroll when he had heard the voice of one of his most youthful students. He had first thought that he was dreaming but when he looked out of his window, he saw that the entire street was looking up at the Hokage faces. Sure enough standing on the Yondaime's head was Naruto.

A few minutes later Gai was still trying to register everything he had heard when there was a knock on his door. He opened it to see a forlorn Naruto standing before him.

"Hi Gai-sensei, do you mind if I crash here for some time?"

"Of course, my youthful pupil. Please come in."

Naruto walked in, lay down on the couch and closed his eyes.

_"Are you okay, Naruto?"_

"I'm fine Kurama-san. Now let me sleep. I'm not in the talking frame of mind."

_"Whatever you say. Just don't let the anger control you."_

Naruto fell into a disturbed sleep.

* * *

When he woke up, the room was fuller than it had been earlier. The Jiji sat on a chair near his head, Iruka-sensei and Anko-neechan were sitting in the other couch. Gai was wearing a flowery apron and was serving them tea. He sat up and tried to ignore all of them.

The Jiji got up, walked towards him and hugged him.

"Naruto, I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry for everything I have done to you. All I wanted to do was to give a happy, normal childhood. Everything I did was to protect you and nothing else." Tears started flowing from his eyes again and his voice was shaking with emotion. "Please forgive this old man for the foolish mistakes he has made. I'll do anything I can to correct them."

Naruto hugged back. "It's okay Jiji. I forgive you. I shouldn't have said all those things too but I let my anger take control of my mouth. I'm sorry too."

"No. There is no need to apologize and I'm glad that atleast you aren't bottling up your feelings anymore."

The Jiji left him and slowly got up and made to leave.

"Naruto, although you weren't able to take the entire exam today, you pass on the strength of your taijutsu test."

"Huh... how?"

"Your taijutsu skill is evident by the fact that you managed to wound an ANBU member. Your use Shunshin and elemental chakra proves your profiency in ninjutsu. That is enough for you to pass. Go tomorrow to meet your Jounin instructor."

"Thanks Jiji. Can you also get rid of those laws about me? They're kind of pointless now after what I did yesterday. Can you also confirm the fact that the Yondaime was my father? You did say you would do anything."

Sarutobi sighed as he left. He was facing two long days of fighting with the council.

Anko got up as soon as the Hokage left and hit Naruto hard on his head.

"Oy, what was that for?"

"That was for making me worry about you. Now let's go get something to eat. I'm hungry as hell."

"There is no need for any of you all to go anywhere. I, Maito Gai, have prepared a most youthful dinner for all of us."

"What the hell is a youthful dinner?"

Naruto watched Anko and Gai bicker and shook his head. Then he looked at Iruka-sensei with some guilt and said, "I'm sorry about what I did."

"It's okay. Anger makes us do stupid things sometimes. Although you should find that ANBU and apologize to him. Although how you beat an ANBU I don't know."

"He was underestimating me. Now come on, let's see how Gai-sensei's cooking is like. If it's really bad, we'll leave Anko-neechan here and slip away to Ichiraku."

Iruka shook his head. This boy was never going to improve. It turned out in the end that Gai was as good as cooking as he was in taijutsu.


	5. Chapter 4: Team Kakashi

Chapter 4: Team 7

* * *

Naruto's alarm clock woke him up the next morning. He sat up blearily and turned it off. He tried to form a Kage Bunshin but in his bedraggled state, his chakra control was nowhere near perfect. Putting his hands together, he made the required handsign and created the Bunshin and sent it off to the Academy. He then promptly crashed back into his bed and fell asleep again.

* * *

As Iruka walked into the room, he could sense the palpable excitement and tension in the room. Today was the start of their lives as shinobi and he hoped that he had taught them enough to make sure they survived. He was followed by a group of jounin. He clapped his hands and called for silence.

"From now on, all of you are shinobi. I wish you luck in your careers and hope that you all will become valuable shinobi to this village. Now I will announce your teams and your instructor's names one by one. When your name is called, get up and leave with your jounin. Understood? Now let's begin."

Iruka scanned the classroom and bit back a groan. Naruto was late as usual. That kid was going to be late to his own appointment as Hokage at this rate. Clearing his mind of thoughts of Naruto, he opened his list and began reciting the teams.

"Team 7: Uchiha Sasuke, Sakura Haruno and Uzumaki Naruto." he eventually intoned.

* * *

The clone hiding in the tree outside the classroom resisted the urge to hit something. He created another clone and dispelled it.

* * *

Naruto sprang out of his bed with a cry of horror. He walked over to his wall and banged his head against it 10 times leaving a huge dent in it. Then he walked back to his bed and fell back asleep.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke waited for his Jounin instructor impatiently. On the outside, he looked calm and composed but in reality his mind was a raging tempest of anger. How could that boy who had been deadlast in every test be stronger than him? He had taken out an ANBU all on his own. Although he was loathe to admit it but the boy was leagues ahead of him and to top it all the boy had humiliated him, an elite Uchiha in front of everybody. Then it turned out that he had the Kyuubi sealed within him. Why had that boy been given such power. Just because he was the Yondaime's son did not mean that he deserved it. He was an Uchiha. He deserved such power and could have used it to destroy that man.

His eyes flicked over to the clock. His instructor was more than 3 hours late and so was the boy. He wasn't surprised that the boy was late but he had expected a jounin to be punctual. The only good thing was that the annoying pink haired fangirl wasn't trying to jump him like always. The only silver lining from yesterday's events he supposed. He perked up when he felt a presence outside the room.

* * *

Naruto's clone felt a presence too and dispelled to let his original know.

* * *

Naruto sprang out of his bed once again. Picking up his weapons, he moved towards his trusty window.

* * *

Hatake Kakashi walked to the room in which his genin team was waiting for him. He hoped they weren't too pissed off. He was actually early by his standards. He paused outside the room for a second. He was finally going to meet Minato-sensei's son properly in just a few seconds. He had decided his opening lines last night itself. Preparing himself, he walked in ignoring the girl's shriek of 'You're late'.

"My first impre-... Huh? Where's Naruto?"

"He's late. He's always late. I can't imagine what ridiculous excuse he'll come up with today." said Pinky.

He was late? Always late? Wait, that meant that he was actually waiting on somebody right now.

"Well then, we'll just have to wait for him won't we?"

* * *

Sakura watched as her sensei made a very scary looking eyesmile. Why did her sensei have to be a weirdo? Well as long as he didn't get between her and Sasuke-kun, she didn't really care.

* * *

Naruto walked into the room 15 minutes after his clone dispelled with a sheepish expression on his face.

"You see I was waiting for 3 hours in Classroom B instead before I realized that I was in the wrong place. Sorry sensei, I made you wait for a long time."

"He was late as well. He got here just now." said Sakura.

"Really? Why were you late sensei?"

"Me? Well you see I got lost on the road of life."

Naruto twitched violently. That excuse blew his out of the water. Looks like he was up against a professional.

_"Oy Naruto! Kakashi-1, Naruto-0."_

"Shut up your furball."

"Okay you three. Rooftop. Now." said Kakashi before shunshining away in a whirl of leaves.

* * *

Kakashi analyzed the three genin in front of him. Sasuke seemed to have the typical snobbish, elitist Uchiha personality. He would have to get rid of that attitude if he wanted to perform well on a team. The girl seemed to be a typical fangirl. He sighed. He had no idea how to correct that. He decided to ask Kurenai for help. He then considered his third student.

The Sandaime for some reason had refused to tell him what kind of kid Naruto was. He hadn't seemed to have inherited Minato sensei's personality or his genius. He had seen the kid's test scores. The girl had said that he was always late. A team in which two people who were always late. How was that going to work out? He wondered what excuse the kid was going to come up with next time.

For some reason Sasuke was glaring at Naruto who happened to be ignoring him pointedly. He sighed. Handling this team was going to be a pain in the ass.

"Why don't we introduce ourselves to each other. We are a team now after all. We need to get to know each other very well in order to survive out in the field. Why don't you go first Sasuke-kun."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are lots of things I dislike and I don't really like anything. And... I can't really call it a dream but I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and to kill a certain man"

The pink haired girl almost seemed to be swooning at the boy's words. He wondered if it was a bad sign that he couldn't even remember her name.

"Next the girl."

Kakashi resisted the urge to bang his head on something. The only thing he got from her words was her name and that she was her teammate's ultimate fangirl. Forget asking Kurenai for pointers. He was going to loan Pinky to Kurenai until she had it beaten out of her.

"Naruto, you're up."

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen. My dislikes are fangirls and people with elitist attitudes. My hobby is training, being late and annoying people. My dream is to become the Hokage and to have my name in as many Bingo books as possible."

Kakashi twitched. Was this kid intentionally trying to annoy him?

"Hmm. I see. My turn I guess. All you need to know about me for the time being is that my name is Hatake Kakashi. Now listen up. You guys passed the graduation exam but you have one more test left. I will take one more test tomorrow and only if I think you guys are good enough will I take you on as my team. "

He held up a hand to silence Sakura's protests.

"Come to training ground 17 at 5 in the morning tomorrow. Make sure you do not eat breakfast."

Kakashi eyesmiled and shunshined away before they asked any questions. He landed a few rooftops away and paused to take out his book when somebody else landed behind him. He turned around and saw that it was Naruto. How had he managed to catch up?

"You're Wolf, right?"

Kakashi waited for a few seconds before replying.

"Yes."

"Thanks for saving my life when I was 5."

"No need. I wasn't supposed to let you get hurt in the place."

An awkward silence stretched between them as they both distinctly avoided each other's gazes.

"You were my father's student, weren't you?"

Kakashi's eye widened. How did he know? The Sandaime couldn't have told him, could he?

"Yes."

"Can you tell me about him? I have read many books about him but I want to know what sort of person he actually was. Did you know my mother as well? I couldn't find anything about her how much ever I searched."

"Yes I knew your mother. I'll tell you about them but now is not the time. First pass my test tomorrow and then we'll see."

Naruto snorted.

"What?"

"If you fail the last Uchiha, every person in the village will be after your head. The test is a farce."

Kakashi twitched. Kakashi-1, Naruto-1, he grudgingly admitted. He shunshined away without replying.

* * *

Next Morning

Sakura watched Sasuke as they waited for their teammate and sensei who were both currently 2 hours late. She thought about approaching him but Naruto's words from the other day echoed through her mind once again. He had called her weak but who was he to judge her. He had been deadlast every year in the Academy while she had been near the top all the time. Her musings were interrupted when Kakashi and Naruto arrived together.

"You're late," she screeched.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted.

"Sorry, I met Naruto on the way and we got lost while talking."

"Sorry, I met sensei on the way and we got lost while talking."

As soon as the words were out of their mouths, both of them looked at each other and glared. Sakura's jaw dropped. They had to have set that up. There was no way that had been natural.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted.

"Sakura-san, do you actually find those pig-like grunts of Sasuke endearing?"

"Don't you dare insult Sasuke-kun or else I'l-"

"You'll do what? Try to bat your eyes at me?"

"Shut Up! I was better than you at the Academy. I'll beat you up."

"Open your eyes. I wasn't trying in the Academy. I am strong enough to beat all 35 of you with my hands tied and my-"

"That's enough! You are a team. Get along and don't fight like little kids. Now about your test. You have to get these bells from me before 12 or else you fail. As you can see, I have only two bells so only two of you will pass. The third will be tied up to the stump over there and sent back to the Academy. Come at me with the intent to kill or you will never be able to get a bell. Don't worry, I'm a Jounin. I can take it. Besides a couple of cute kids like you will never be able to get a hit on me anyway. Now, we begin at the count of 3."

Naruto stood waiting with his hands behind his head. As soon as the count was completed, Sasuke and Sakura rushed into hiding. Naruto casually lowered his hands as if he intended to put them in his pockets. Just as his left hand reached his thigh, he flicked his wrist lightly and threw a kunai at Kakashi's right eye. The instant the kunai left his fingers, he leaned to his right and slipped into Kakashi's blind spot. He drew his sword and shunshined to Kakashi and tried to for a stab. Kakashi, clearly unsettled by Naruto's speed and ferocity, drew a kunai and deflected the stab. Naruto knew he had only one shot to execute his plan. With his speed, he currently had the element of surprise. Once he lost that, it would be almost impossible to get the drop on Kakashi. Using the momentum from the deflection, Naruto spun, drew his other sword and tried for a cross-slash. Kakashi jumped backwards while lifting his other hand to black the slash with another kunai. Seeing the block, Naruto imbued his sword with wind chakra. The sword cut clean through the kunai but missed Kakashi by inches. Kakashi put some distance between and took up a defensive pose awaiting Naruto's next attack. Instead Naruto sheathed his swords and bent down. Picking up both the bells from the ground, he proclaimed with a smirk, "Looks like I pass."

Kakashi was flabbergasted to say the least. The kid had been aiming for the bells from the start. The first attack had set him up perfectly for the second one. The first thing every shinobi is taught is to never underestimate an opponent and now a genin had used that to beat him. It seemed Naruto had been hiding his true skills in the Academy. He was strong. Very strong. Another few years and he would be jounin level.

He watched as Sasuke and Sakura emerged from their hiding spots. Sasuke was looking at Naruto with jealousy and Sakura just looked nervous.

"Do we have to fight him for the bells now?" she asked. Sasuke kind of perked up on hearing the question and looked expectantly at Kakashi.

Kakashi wondered what he should do. This had never happened to him before. In fact, to his knowledge this had not ever happened before in the history of the bell test. The bell test was created with the premise that the bells wouldn't be taken in the first place. Naruto answered the question by throwing them one bell each.

"What are you doing? Didn't you hear sensei? If you give them to us, you'll fail."

"If they fail me just after I got these from a jounin, then this village is full of madmen."

Kakashi twitched. To hell with it all. This test was a farce anyway. He would beat teamwork into them later. He disappeared and appeared near the posts with Sasuke and Sakura beneath his arms. He ignored their loud protests and tied them to the posts.

"You guys pass but only because of Naruto. If he had been a normal genin like you, you guys would have failed for sure. See you tomorrow morning at 7 at the mission assignment desk."

He pulled out his book and started walking back to the village along with Naruto ignoring their pleas to free them.

* * *

"So who taught you how to use elemental chakra?"

"No one. I learnt it myself."

Kakashi's eye widened.

"You mean you're this strong all on your own. Nobody trained you or anything?"

"Well, not exactly. Do you know two jounins called Maito Gai and Anko Mitarashi?"

Kakashi nodded and motioned for him to continue.

"Gai-sensei showed me his personal work-out routine and I have been doing that for years now. I spar with Anko-neechan a few times in a month. That's it. Both of them didn't teach me anything. Everything I know is self taught."

Kakashi stopped in his tracks. It seemed that the kid had inherited Minato-sensei's genius.

"You were lucky, you know. You got those bells because I underestimated you, you know? It won't happen again."

"I know. That's why I attacked you head on instead of using my usual style. Plus my style would be useless against your sharingan."

"Usual style? And how do you know about my eye?"

"Stealth. And it's not a secret, you know. I found stuff about you when I was researching about my dad."

"I see. So you attack distract your enemies with a long range attack and then get them from their blind spots when they are distracted. That's deadly. How the hell did you learn that?"

"Forest of Death. When I first went there, I wasn't strong enough to take on the animals head on. So I had to develop my stealth skills. I got pretty decent at it so I kind of made it my style."

"How many times have you gone there?"

"Lost count."

"Let me guess. You met Anko there."

"Yeah."

"And you met Gai while running laps of Konoha."

"Yeah."

"Hmmm. So do you know that you completely ruined my bell test?"

"How?"

"The point was that none of you would be able to get the bell and then you would turn on each other. It's a test to teach you about teamwork and you ruined it. But that's neither here nor there. However you shouldn't antagonize your teammates like you did."

"I know. It's just that both their attitudes are irritating as hell."

"You got that right."

A companionable silence spread between them. As they neared the village, Kakashi looked down at Naruto and said, "Please tell me that you still don't sustain yourself on ramen."

"Huh? What's wrong with ramen."

"It's not healthy for you."

"Can't afford anything else."

"Now that you will be doing missions now, I hope that you will start eating other stuff as well."

"Maybe."

Kakashi twitched. This kid was just as annoying as his mother.

"Come on. My treat and I'll tell you a little about your parents."

* * *

Next Day

"Traitor."

Kakashi eyesmiled. He had his revenge. Team 7 was currently in the mission assignment room to receive their first mission.

"You want me to WALK A DOG? Are you guys crazy? I did not train 16 hours every day for the past seven years to walk a DOG. Give me something else, Jiji."

The eyes of everyone in the room widened, all of them sharing one thought. Kakashi dragged his eye back to his book. No wonder the kid was so strong. On top of being a genius, he worked his ass off.

The Sandaime shifted the pipe in his mouth.

"Naruto, a genin team is not authorized to take anything above D-ranks. You may be allowed a C-rank after you have completed the required number of D-ranks and if your sensei deems you ready."

"How many?"

"At least 20."

20 Kage Bunshins poofed into existence around Naruto.

"Give me 20 of those. I'll have them done in an hour."

Sarutobi rubbed his face in exasperation.

"Naruto, D-ranks are meant to be a team-building exercise. Plus your sensei hasn't said you are ready."

Naruto whirled around and glared at Kakashi who lazily looked up and said, "Naruto is ready but the other two aren't."

Yes. He had beaten Naruto again. The kid had given his word that he would try to improve his teamwork and now he couldn't go back on his words. Kakashi-2, Naruto-1.

Naruto's glare intensified and then was replaced with a look of dejected acceptance.

"Fine, I'll walk your fucking dog," he grumbled.

"Language, Naruto!" Sarutobi growled.

* * *

Naruto was reached his apartment block and stopped just at the entrance. He closed his eyes and opened his senses. Finding what he wanted, he shunshined to the top of the tree behind his apartment.

"Hello, Ox-san."

"Yo, kid."

"Um... really sorry about the other day. I kind of lost it but I still shouldn't have done it. I guess all it did was make even the shinobi angry with me."

"Relax, kid. All it did was to make me the laughing stock of all jounin and ANBU."

"Fuck! Sorry again. I di-"

"It's okay. No hard feelings. Think of it as a spar. You aimed for a completely harmless spot anyway. Besides, I'm the one who should be thanking you."

"Why?"

"You reminded me of the cardinal rule of combat. Do not underestimate your enemy. Now that I'm going back to active duty, it's a good thing it happened. I don't think I really want to die yet."

"So my guard is being changed."

"No. The Hokage decided that you don't need one anymore now that you're a shinobi . He told me to stay on till you apologized. Now that that's over with, my mission is done."

"Damn that manipulative old man."

"Before I go, tell me how you gave me the slip."

"I used to create a Kage Bunshin in the toilet and then Henge into a rat."

Ox started banging his head against the tree.

"Fuck. How. could. I. have. missed. something. that. simple?" he said punctuating every word with a bang. He stopped his actions and made to leap away.

"Wait. At least tell me your name. It's been six years, you know."

"Tenzo."

Naruto watched him leave and then jumped into his own apartment through his perpetually open window. He walked over to his bed and fell into it. He started staring at his ceiling and was soon lost in his thoughts. He started when there was a loud banging on his door. He looked up at his clock and saw that he had been out of it for more than an hour. He pinched himself to make sure that he was actually awake. As far as he could remember, no one had ever come to his house before. It must be someone with the wrong address. He walked up to the door, took a calming breath and opened it. Waiting for him on the other side were Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Shino and Hinata.

"Where the hell have you been for the last two days?" asked Chouji. "We have been looking for you everywhere."

"Yes. Every fucking where. And why can't I smell you?" asked Kiba.

Naruto stood with his mouth agape staring at them. Shikamaru reached out and closed his mouth.

"Mind if we come in?"

Naruto nodded feebly and moved aside, allowing them to enter. He rubbed his head sheepishly as they took in his messy living room. The room was full of scrolls. Naruto created a few clones who set about collecting them. Shikamaru grabbed the last one before a clone could and opened it. It was covered with Naruto's handwriting.

"Naruto, what is this?"

"My notes."

"I can see that but what is it?"

"The library doesn't let me borrow books so I have to read the books there and take down my own notes."

"So it's true then. That you held yourself back in the Academy. Why?"

"Most of the adults already hated me. If I was the best, then I would have just drawn more attention to myself. I didn't need that. So I hid my true abilities."

Naruto took the scroll from him and threw it into his bedroom.

"Naruto-kun, why didn't you tell us? We're your friends after all, aren't we?" said Hinata with a blush on her face.

Naruto stopped and turned around.

"My friends...?"

"Yes. It is logical that we are friends. Why? Because we have come to cheer you up when you are sad." said Shino.

Happiness bloomed within Naruto.

"Thanks guys. Sorry I lied to you. Won't happen again. I really wish I could have gotten a team with any of you guys."

He walked into his kitchen and rummaged about for a bit.

"I'm sorry but don't have anything I can give you guys to eat unless you like instant ramen."

"Don't you have tea or coffee or something." Kiba asked.

"Never tried it."

"You have nothing else? Do you mean to say you actually live on ramen?" asked Chouji.

"It's cheap."

"Do you have any idea how unhealthy that is?"

"Can't really afford anything else."

"Can't argue with that." said Chouji shuddering at the thought of living only on ramen.

"Wait. If you are the Yondaime's son then shouldn't you inherited something from him." drawled Shikamaru from his position against the wall.

"I never really thought of that. The Jiji hid it from me and everyone else that my dad was the Yondaime. Maybe he held my inheritance back. I'll ask him tomorrow."

"Forget all that boring stuff. Let's go eat something. Come on everyone." said Kiba.

With a huge smile on his face, Naruto walked out of his apartment with his friends.

* * *

1 Month Later

Kakashi watched his team as they walked into the mission assignment room once again. Naruto had apologized to Sakura and they seemed to have a working relationship of sorts. The problem was with Sasuke. The kid was rebuffing all of Naruto's attempts at creating a team dynamic. He was actually surprised that Naruto hadn't attacked Sasuke , he wanted to beat the kid. He was sure of one thing though. If he took one more D-rank, then Naruto would really kill him. The look on his face after the last mission when he had been made to weed a garden had expressed all his thoughts on the matter. So here he was, taking a C-rank even though 2/3rd of his team wasn't ready for it.

* * *

I don't like writing mushy stuff so there won't be any pairings in this story for a long time. Thanks for reading and all the reviews people.


	6. Chapter 5: Swordsman Of The Mist

Chapter 5: Swordsman Of The Mist

* * *

Sarutobi looked up in surprise when he heard a knock on his door. Nobody called on him at this hour unless it was important.

"Enter."

The door opened and the end of a cane appeared. The cane was followed by Shimura Danzo into the room. Sarutobi remained seated and watched as his old friend made his way to the chair in front of his desk.

"It has been some time Danzo. What do you want to talk about?"

"Can't an old man visit a friend to talk about the old days and pass some time?"

Sarutobi's eyebrow rose.

"Fair enough. I'll get to the point. I heard that you assigned a C-rank to the jinchuriki earlier today. He is scheduled to leave the village tomorrow morning, isn't he?"

Sarutobi placed his pipe in his mouth and lit it. He took a couple of breaths before looking askance at his guest.

"I assumed that was a rhetorical question."

Danzo tightened the hold on his cane. He had known Sarutobi for a long time. The fact that he was resorting to sarcasm meant that he was prepared his to defend his decision to the end. The chances of his goal being accomplished had been further lowered.

"I do not think it is wide to let him out of the village. Now that the boy has foolishly exposed his lineage to the entire world, his life will be in much greater danger. I suggest that you remove him from this mission."

Sarutobi was silent for a while.

"I am sure that you have kept tabs on the boy."

Danzo didn't bother lying. Just like he could read Sarutobi like a book, the opposite was also true.

"Yes."

"Then you know of his boy's growth. The boy has inherited his father's talent. I will not stunt his growth by confining him to the village. I do not intend to turn him into a weapon to be used only in wars. I hope that he will become one of the greatest and trusted shinobi of this village."

Danzo stood up and walked to the door. He paused at the door and turned his head back.

"I have never said this before to your face but I will do so now. Your foolish ideals are what has lead to the decline of Konoha's strength."

"I disagree. You and I have always had a different perception of strength. You always saw it as brute power but I tend to think of it as something else."

"Your foolish belief in the Will of Fire, I believe."

"Yes. This is a time of peace. We are no longer at war. Your methods are not required at a time like this. Rather they would be detrimental to it. Danzo, I wish that we could together once again. Our paths have grown apart for a long time. My time is nearing an end. I can feel it in my bones. I do not wish to die as an enemy to one of my oldest friends."

"Well then, you will have to die with your wish unfulfilled. The time for us to work together is long past."

Sarutobi watched as the door slammed behind Danzo. He sighed. It was at times like this that he hated being old. Things were so much simpler when you were 20.

* * *

Tazuna, Sasuke and Sakura waited at Konoha's gate for their other two teammates. Tazuna was tapping his foot impatiently.

"Where are those two? We were supposed to have left 2 hours ago," roared Tazuna.

"Those two are always late. You'll be lucky if they come within the next hour," piped Kotetsu from his booth.

"What?"

"Yup. Those two are perpetually late," offered Izumo from Kotetsu's side.

"Is it true?" Tazuna asked Sasuke and Sakura.

"Yes. It's true," admitted Sakura dejectedly.

"But why? Shouldn't shinobi like you be punctual? And if you know that they were going to be late, then why do you come on time?"

"Don't ask me. Ask them. And I come on time because the thought of sinking down to their level sickens me." said Sakura.

"Ah, Sakura-chan. You hurt this poor man with words like those words of yours."

All of them whirled around, to see Kakashi walking casually towards them reading his book.

"Oh, shut it. The day you feel guilty for being late is the day when the world ends."

"Hn," grunted Sasuke.

Naruto suddenly appeared between them sheepishly rubbing his head.

"Sorry guys, I fell asleep while taking a bath."

"Liar," Sakura screamed.

"Relax everyone. Now that all of us are here, let's get going." said Kakashi. All of them quietened down and started their journey. After a few minutes, Sakura asked, "Hey Naruto, why are you wearing your swords like that? You generally wear both on your back."

One of Naruto's swords was hanging at his left hip and the other over his right shoulder.

"This style is more combat suited but it's slightly uncomfortable so I generally don't wear them this way. Since we're on a mission and can be attacked at any time, I wore them like this."

Sasuke appeared to be struggling with himself about something. Finally he asked, "What do you mean more combat suited?"

"My draw is faster this way."

"Hn," he grunted and relapsed into silence.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, that reminds me. What are your elements?"

"Mine? Mine are Raiton, Doton and Suiton."

"Awesome. You can teach me Raiton and Doton."

"Wait. Didn't you use Fuuton that day?"

"Yeah. Fuuton is my primary element, Raiton my secondary and Doton my tertiary."

Kakashi's eye widened. This kid was surprising him once again. Having a tertiary element was very rare. He noticed a look of jealousy on Sasuke's face once again. He decided to work on that after this mission.

"What can you do right now?"

"Nothing much. All I can do is imbue my weapons with Fuuton and Raiton chakra to cut and shock. I can't even use Doton yet."

"What exercises have you done?"

"For Fuuton, I first cut leaves. Then I moved up to trees and then rocks. For Raiton all I did was to light a bulb using just my chakra. I couldn't find anything on Doton so I've done nothing there."

"Hmmm... I don't really know much about Fuuton so we'll leave that for the time being. Let's work on your Raiton for now. Stream some Raiton, through your blade and let me see."

Naruto did as asked. Kakashi looked at the sword and nodded to himself.

"You can generate Raiton well but your method of powering it up is wrong. You are just pumping chakra into it until it is strong enough to be used as an attack. For a guy with as much chakra as you, you are able to pull it off but there are much less wasteful ways of doing it. Instead of powering it up blindly, what you have to do is increase the frequency of oscillations. That way you can create a more powerful attack with less chakra. Here I'll show you the difference."

Kakashi pulled out two kunai and held one in each hand. He streamed chakra and threw them both at two tree. The first one embedded itself and discharged with a quiet sound. The second one landed with a loud sizzle and thunk and burned the bark around it. Kakashi walked over to retrieve his weapons.

"See the difference. You try it."

Instead of trying the technique, Naruto created a multitude of Kage Bunshins who ran off into the forest. Noticing the look of utter incomprehension of Kakashi's face, he said, "I try ninjutsu with my Kage Bunshin. Whatever they learn, I learn. It speeds up the process a lot."

If Kakashi had not been wearing a mask, then everyone would have seen his gaping mouth. With this training method, Naruto was basically a ninjutsu juggernaut. A shiver of excitement ran down his spine. He wanted to see Naruto's level in a few years.

"Kakashi, teach me my element." said Sasuke.

"It's Kakashi-sensei. Unfortunately, I don't have any chakra paper with me. We need that to check your element. You'll have to wait until we return to Konoha. Besides your chakra control is not good enough to start working on your element. In fact most people, wait till they are chuunin to start learning. Naruto is just an exception."

Sasuke grunted and stalked off with an angry look on his face. Kakashi watched him walk off. He was slowly losing the boy. He had better do something before the kid did something stupid.

* * *

Next Day

Naruto spotted a puddle in their path and stiffened. He made the sign for enemy to alert the rest of his team. They continued walking forward without pausing. Just as they were crossing the puddle, Naruto pulled out his sword, streamed Raiton chakra onto it and stabbed downwards into the puddle. The puddle exploded and two shinobi appeared in its place. They were both wearing claws on their hands. Both of them went for Naruto. He stepped under the first thrust and drove his sword into the attacker's foot. The other one tried stab Naruto from around his partner's body, a blind spot for Naruto. His attack was stopped short when two of Kakashi's shuriken embedded themselves in his throat. He collapsed with a gurgle and formed a pool of blood on the ground. They were both wearing the Kiri hitai-ates but with a horizontal slash running through the symbol.

"Sensei who are these guys?"

"I think they are the Demon Brothers of Kiri, chuunin level missing-nins."

"How did you know that?" asked a slightly surprised Naruto.

"Bingo book."

"I have got to get myself one of those," muttered Naruto.

Kakashi whirled around and fixed Tazuna with a withering look.

"This mission is a C-rank. We were supposed to encounter bandits not shinobi."

"I'm sorry I lied but I had to do it. My country is being sucked dry by a man named Gato. Our only hope of survival is the completion of the bridge I am building. I had expected Konoha to send a team of chuunin. Not genin. I could not afford to pay for more than a C-rank anyway."

"This is beyond our mission parameters. We should abandon you right now and return to Konoha."

"If you do that, then Gato's men will kill me. My young daughter and grandson will never see me again. The bridge will never be competed and Gato will take over as the Daimyo of the Wave. My poor daughter and grandson would die of starvation and..."

"Yeah, yeah. Enough with the sob story. We'll do it. Now, I'm going to interrogate these guy. It will be good to know who else Gato has in his employ. You guys watch. You might have to this on your own some day. Naruto tie him up and pull out your sword."

After Naruto was done, Kakashi bent down and pulled up his hitai-ate exposing his sharingan eye. Gasps escaped from Sasuke and Sakura.

"Look into my eye," he ordered.

The missing-nin complied and suddenly his face became blank of all emotions. A drop of drool rolled out of his mouth. He started talking in a monotone voice. "My brother and I escaped with Zabuza-sama and Haku-sama after his failed coup attempt. In order to earn the money for another try, he agreed to work for Gato because he promised to pay a lot. We were ordered to kill the shinobi protecting the bridge builder by Zabuza-sama." His eyes started rolling in their sockets and he passed away.

"How the hell am I supposed to learn anything from that? You used your sharingan to cast a genjutsu. What was the point of that whole 'learn from this' nonsense?"

"Shut up and listen will you? I think this Zabuza is Zabuza Momochi, the Demon of Kiri. He's one of the Seven Swordsman of the Mist. If he attacks, then I want all of you to stay out of it. He is way above your level. Even you Naruto. You three have to protect Tazuna. He might have allies and I can't fight Zabuza and protect Tazuna at the same time. Understood? Good."

He pulled out an empty sealing scroll and sealed both the brothers into it. He pulled out a kunai and cut his thumb. Making a few handsigns, he slapped his hand onto the ground. With a puff a smoke, a small dog appeared.

"Hello Pakkun. I want you to take this back to Konoha." Kakashi said, holding out the scroll for him to take. Pakkun looked around and his eyes fell on the 3 genin.

"So these is your team, is it Kakashi?" said Pakkun sniffing the air.

"He talks," screamed Naruto and Sakura.

"Of course I talk. I'm a summon, you brats. Not some common roadside dog."

He took the scroll in his mouth, raised a paw in good-bye and jumped off.

As Kakashi watched Pakkun leave, the vestiges of an idea began to form in his mind.

"Sasuke, can you activate your sharingan?"

As soon as the question left his mouth, he realized that it had been a stupid one. After all the trauma Sasuke had been through, it would have been impossible for him to not have activated it.

"Yes," Sasuke replied with a tone full of eagerness.

"Good. Once we reach the bridge, I'll show you how to use it to cast genjutsu."

Kakashi had expected a reaction. He hadn't expected the kid to smile. Wow. So this guy was as much as a training nut as Naruto. That made his job much more simpler.

* * *

2 Days Later

"Wow, this is really beautiful," shouted Naruto as they reached the side of a large lake.

"We are close." said Tazuna . "We'll reach the shore by evening and the bridge by tomorrow if we cross tonight."

Kakashi decided that he didn't like the sound of that. He didn't like the thought of having to fight an enemy like Zabuza surrounded by a large amount of water. He almost sighed with relief when he sensed an enemy presence. Better here than on an ocean.

"Everyone duck," he shouted as a large sword came spinning at them. It passed harmlessly over their heads and embedded itself deeply within a tree trunk. That must be one of the legendary swords. He watched as Zabuza appeared on the sword. This time he did sigh. He had been getting to a really good part in Jiraiya-sama's book. That man was a certified genius.

Naruto analyzed the man standing on the sword. From his muscles he could guess that the man would be able to swing that huge sword around pretty easily. That thing's range was huge. He had to separate the guy from it.

"Sharingan Kakashi, the Copy Ninja of Konoha. How did this puny bridge builder ever afford someone like you? Oh I see. Because of those brats calling themselves shinobi with you. Too bad. With those three and the bridge builder as a liability you will never be able to beat me."

"You three! Stay out of this. You are no match for him."

Naruto glanced at his sensei once before returning his gaze Zabuza. This was his first encounter with someone who actually wanted to kill him. There was no way he was going to let this go.

"No way in hell," he shouted and disappeared. He appeared again on the sword right beside Zabuza. Before the missing-nin had the time to react, he was into the motion for a rising slash. Zabuza instinctively jumped back to the ground with a look of shock on his face. Naruto's attack had nicked his chest slightly. Just as he landed on the ground, Naruto disappeared again and appeared again above him, both of his swords held in a X. Kakashi drew a kunai and attacked as well. Seeing an attack on two fronts, Zabuza dodged to the side and then jumped backwards onto the lake.

"Stay away from the water, sensei," shouted Naruto as he landed and drew a kunai. He charged it up with electricity and threw it. Rather than aiming at Zabuza, he threw it into the water. Zabuza instantly cottoned onto the purpose of Naruto's attack and jumped off the water surface and onto land once again. As soon as he landed he found himself in a two-way attack again. This time however he had to no place to dodge or the time to use ninjutsu.

Naruto was just about to complete his attack when out of the corner of his eye he noticed some exaggerated movements in the brush to his right. A volley of senbon erupted from the spot, towards him and Kakashi. Cursing, both of them dropped their attacks and dodged backwards. Zabuza used the momentary relapse to escape.

Naruto made to go after him but Kakashi held him back with a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Our mission is to protect Tazuna. Not to eliminate Gato. Let them go."

Naruto grudgingly put away his swords. He had to admit that the man was right.

"You two are awesome," shouted Tazuna. "Especially the blond brat. I never thought that he would be so good."

Neither of them bothered replying to that. Naruto walked back and pulled out Zabuza's giant sword from the tree it was embedded in with some difficulty. The sword was almost twice his height.

"Damn. I wish I was older. I could have used this."

"Are you sure? With that huge thing, you would never be able to fight the way you did today. Good work but next time I tell you to stay out of it then you stay out of it."

"Oh come on. That was awesome teamwork there. It might not have gone so well if you had fought him alone. Hey, do you another of those sealing scrolls you used to hold the bodies of those two?"

Kakashi pulled out a scroll and threw it at him. Naruto caught it and opened it. A blank look filled his face.

"What do I do now?"

Kakashi was about to show him when he was interrupted by Sasuke.

"Naruto, fight me."

"Huh? What? No."

"Don't think that you are better than me. Fight me. Now."

Kakashi stepped in between them.

"That's enough. Naruto and Sakura, you'll two stay here and protect Tazuna. Sasuke come with me." he ordered. Naruto got into position as Sasuke and Kakashi disappeared into the trees.

* * *

"Sasuke calm down."

Sasuke glared back defiantly at Kakashi. Kakashi refrained from hitting himself.

"Listen, I want to help you. Just let go of your anger and listen to me. Stop acting like a spoiled brat for once." Not surprisingly, it was his last statement which actually worked.

"Why do you resent Naruto so much?"

"Because he mocks me."

"He already apologized for the incident at the Academy. He was sincere about it as well. It is not good for a shinobi to hold grudges."

"He has power which he doesn't need. I need everything I can get to kill that man."

"If you are referring to the Kyuubi, then you are wrong. Naruto has not once ever relied on the Kyuubi. Do you know why he is so strong? You remember what he said at the Hokage-sama's office 1 month ago?"

"You mean when he claimed to have trained 16 hours everyday?"

"Not claimed. It's true. I have seen it myself. When I was in the ANBU, I was assigned to guard him. Since he has been 5, he had been training that much. Tell me, how much have you trained?"

Sasuke offered no reply.

"He has had a hard life, Sasuke. He also has felt a lot of pain, like you. You two share the most amongst all the kids of your age."

"You're wrong. He has no idea what it feels to lose what I have."

"Have you had assassination attempts on your life as long as you can remember? Yes the pain you have felt is different but pain is pain. It does not matter how it was caused. Just like you want to become strong to avenge your family, he wants to become stronger to become Hokage. Are you two really that different? Don't resent him just because he is stronger than you. Let go of your anger."

"That's easy for you to say. You have-"

"Brat, you aren't the only person in this world to have felt anguish. My father committed suicide when I was much younger than you. My best friend died because of my mistakes. Every precious person in my life has already been killed. I know about revenge better than anybody else. It drives you crazy and nothing else. Even after you achieve it, you feel no happiness because it doesn't bring back the people who are already dead."

Sasuke was wide-eyed.

"So are you saying that I let Itachi go free"

"No. Hunt him down if you wish. But not for revenge. Hunt him down for justice. Justice for all the lives he took. Also be nicer to the people around you. They want to help you. Taking help of your comrades is not a bad thing. It makes you stronger. If you follow the path you are currently on, you will end up being no better than Itachi."

Kakashi turned him around and left the stunned Sasuke to his thoughts.

* * *

Sakura sat around the campfire Naruto had built. Tazuna sat to her left and Naruto sat opposite her. It had been some time since Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei had left. She turned her attention onto her other teammate. Naruto had become an enigma of sorts. In the Academy, he had been deadlast and had avoided attention. She guessed that that had been an act of sorts. The Naruto of Team 7 was a loud, attention-seeker of sorts. Then he had announced to the entire village that he had the Kyuubi sealed within him and that he was the Yondaime's son. He had even apologized to her for insulting her during the graduation exam. Who exactly was he?

"Is it true that you are the Yondaime's son?"

"Huh? Yeah, it's true. You can check a couple of his pictures in the library. I look just like him."

"And about the Kyu..." her voice trailed off.

"Yup. I'm a jinchuriki."

Sakura was silent for a while.

"Naruto, how come you are so strong? And why did you hid your abilities in the Academy?"

"Well, I'm this strong because I have been training a lot since I was 5. And as for why I hid in the Academy. I didn't want to draw attention to myself. Plus, I didn't want any fangirls."

Sakura twitched.

"Sakura-san, let me ask you a question. I presume you want to have a family in the future, don't you?"

Sakura nodded.

"What kind of guy do you want to settle down with?"

"A guy who is handsome but very nice. He should be funny and good with kids."

She stopped when Naruto raised his hand.

"Sasuke may be good looking but he isn't any of the others. So why do you go after him so much?"

Sakura was about to raise her voice and shout in her Sasuke-kun's defense but stopped herself. Naruto had a point. Sasuke had always been rude to her and never even bothered to give her a second glance. Yet she had persisted in trying to get him.

"Ok fine, let's assume that you like the guy notwithstanding all his quirks. Now suppose a guy likes you but you don't like him. How would you feel if at every opportunity he got, he would hug you or try to kiss you or something."

"I would be disgusted and very angry with him."

"Exactly. Now reverse the situation."

Sakura felt as if she had been struck by a bolt of lightning. Had she actually been that bad? She had basically been a stalker. Naruto actually hadn't been very off when he had insulted her at the graduation exam.

"I'm not saying you change your feelings or something like that. That is totally upto you. All I'm saying is that you should go about it in a way a non-obsessed person would. Plus you are a shinobi now. Your duty comes first not your love life. The village is counting on you to be strong and to complete the mission. Sorry to say so but right now you are pretty much useless."

Naruto got up and walked off to a nearby tree leaving Sakura to her thoughts. Tazuna got up and followed him. He leaned against the same tree and pulled out a cigarette. He lit it and took a long drag from it.

"That was brutal, kid."

'What? The fight?"

"No. How you brought Ms. Pinky to ground level."

"She needed it. Better than getting killed I suppose."

"You're pretty mature for your age, kid."

"I've had to be. Otherwise I would already be dead."

Naruto watched as Tazuna blew out a couple of smoke rings.

"Hey, what does smoking feel like?"

"Huh? Why don't you try it yourself? I can't really explain it that well."

He held out the cigarette to Naruto. Naruto took it and put it in his mouth. He took a drag and instantly started coughing.

"Not so fast, kid. Take it in as slow as you can."

Naruto tried it again. This time as he inhaled, he felt a light buzz in his head. It felt good. He was about to take another drag when the cigarette abruptly disappeared from his hand. It was in the hands of Kakashi-sensei who threw it on the ground and crushed it with his foot.

"Hey, that was mine."

"Naruto," he said in a very scary voice. "I do not want to see you smoking again. It's a disgusting habit. And you." He whirled on Tazuna. "How could you give one to a boy like him? Now give me all of yours." He held out a hand.

"Why do I have go and give you mine? I swear I won't give the boy anymore."

"Because he can take them off you without you even knowing it. Give them over or we'll leave you here."

Tazuna handed them over, muttering insults under his breath.

Kakashi turned and threw them into the lake. For once he was glad Minato-sensei and Kushina-san were dead. If they had found out what happened, he would have been in for a very painful death. Now all he had to make sure was that Hokage-sama, Gai and Anko never heard of it.

* * *

Next Day

Naruto felt awe as he looked up at the gigantic bridge towering over them. He actually stopped for a moment and the boat he was walking besides drifted ahead of him. He noticed that he had been left behind a few moments later and ran to catch up. Tazuna looked at him walking on the water and shook his head.

"After the last fight, I thought nothing could surprise me anymore but watching the kid walk on water like that, I think I may have spoken too early. How is he doing it?"

"Sorry but that is not something we can tell civilians." Kakashi said, looking up from his book. He turned his eye onto his two other students. For once, Sasuke was not looking at Naruto with jealousy. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts. He had been like that a lot since their talk. For some reason, Sakura had been like that too. He wondered if something had happened when he had not been there or if it was the effect of the fight she had witnessed.

"Tazuna-san, where do you want me to land? Here or nearer to your home?" asked the boatman.

Tazuna looked at Kakashi who nodded at him.

"Nearer to my home." Tazuna said.

In around half an hour, they landed at tiny dock which was hidden in a small alcove. They disembarked and Tazuna thanked the boatman.

"Anything for you, Tazuna-san."

Tazuna led them to his house. The door was opened by a pretty lady who appeared to be in her thirties.

"Dad," she shrieked as she hugged Tazuna with tears in her eyes. "I was getting worried."

"Yes. Yes. It's good to be back too, Tsunami" He pulled her off and pointed towards Team 7. "I wouldn't have made it if not for these people. They saved my life from Gato's men twice already."

The lady bowed low to them.

"Thank you for all the help you have given my father."

"No. No. It's alright. No need for all that. We were just doing our job." Kakashi said in a placating voice.

"Please come in."

They made their way into the house and seated themselves in the living room. Tsunami left to make them some food and Tazuna went to check on his grandson. As soon as they were out of the room, Kakashi started talking.

"Ok. Listen up, you three. We managed to fend off Zabuza once but we mustn't get complacent. He is a very dangerous shinobi. He is known as a master of silent killing. You won't even know you're dead until it's too late. Luckily for us, he didn't expect Naruto. Also we have now separated him from his sword. Another good thing. It might make him angry and anxious to get it back. It's never good to fight with flaring emotions. The problem is the other enemy. We have no idea about his abilities. If it is another jounin, then we have our work really cut out. So it's training time."

Naruto jumped up with a shout off joy.

"Not for you, Naruto. You have to guard Tazuna. I'm going to be training Sasuke and Sakura."

Naruto sighed and sat down. He really couldn't argue with Kakashi's logic.

"Good. Send a few of your Kage Bunshins as look-outs. Protect the bridge as well. Come on then, you two. It's time to get to work."

Naruto watched as the rest of his team left. He got up and started to make his preparations.

* * *

Kakashi led Sasuke and Sakura into the forest looking for a decent spot to begin their training. He soon found a clearing that would suit their purposes.

"The purpose of this training is to climb trees. Now before you say that you already know how to do that, watch me."

Kakashi moved towards a tree and walked up the tree with his feet glued to the bark. Cries of amazement escaped from Sasuke and Sakura. Kakashi continued walking up until he was hanging upside down from the first branch.

"This is a very basic chakra control exercise. You have to release chakra form your feet and hold onto the wood. If you use too less then you'll fall and if you use too much then the wood will crack. Remember Naruto walking on the water? That is the next stage of this training. Once your chakra control is good enough to do that, I'll start teaching you jutsus."

He jumped off, flipped in the air and landed on the ground.

"Why don't you try it? I suggest you take a running jump. Use kunai to mark your progress. Come back to the house when you can climb till the top."

Kakashi disappeared and appeared out of his students' sights. Cutting his thumb with a kunai, he slapped his hand on the ground. With a puff another one of his summons appeared.

"Yo, Biscuit. Keep watch on these two. Get them out of here if the enemy appears."

Kakashi jumped off and started running back to Tazuna's house.

* * *

50 reviews. Oh Yeah!

I was planning to finish the entire Wave Arc in this chapter but due to my crazy professors I'm going to be busy for the next week or so. So I thought I would post this half now itself.


	7. Chapter 6: Saving A Country

Chapter 6: Saving A Country

* * *

Zabuza refrained from scratching the wound on his chest. Haku had done a reasonable job of patching it up. Scratching would only increase the risk of infection. Zabuza stretched his neck and got up. Without his sword on his back, he felt naked. As if a part of him was missing. He had fought with the sword for so long, it had become an integral part of his style. He was going to kill that blond brat in the most painful way he could think of but first he needed a plan. There was also Hatake Kakashi to think of. Attacking without planning would be suicide. He was seriously at a disadvantage here. He hadn't even forced Kakashi to use his sharingan. He could only guess how much stronger Kakashi was with his eye uncovered. The biggest problem was that both the brat and Kakashi used Raiton. He was basically going into a fight without his sword and his ninjutsu. A nasty smile stretched across his face. He hadn't been at this much of a disadvantage for a long time. He had almost forgotten the feeling. He walked out of the room to find Haku. This fight was going to be fun and killing those two even more so.

He found Haku out gathering some herbs from the forest.

"Haku."

"Yes, Zabuza-sama!"

"You are going to go for Kakashi first. Trap him in your ice mirrors while I finish off the brat. Then we'll kill Kakashi together. Those other two brats are insignificant."

"Are you sure that my ice mirrors will be capable enough to hold in a shinobi of the caliber of Hatake Kakashi?"

"Well then all I have to do is to kill the kid before Kakashi breaks out." Zabuza said with a deadly smile. "That kid's speed is amazing. If I can figure out how he does it then it might prove to very useful. But anyway this time we have to make sure to capture them in my mist before attacking. Once they're caught, the kid's speed and Kakashi's sharingan will be useless."

"Let's hope so. They might have some other tricks hidden away."

"Tricks or no, I am going to kill both of them and get back my sword."

* * *

Naruto watched as Kakashi-sensei taught Sakura how to walk on water. She had supposedly finished the tree climbing exercise in less than 5 minutes. Naruto sighed. He wished he had been born with that level of chakra control. It would have made his life so much more easier.

"Sensei, now that you both are here, I am going to go for a walk in the town."

Kakashi raised an arm of acknowledgement without looking up from his book. Naruto jumped off from his spot on the roof of Tazuna's house and started walking towards the town.

* * *

Kakashi sat around the dinner table waiting for Naruto. Sakura had managed to pick up water walking as well. He was considering teaching her how to dispel genjutsus. With her level of control she could either be a medic-nin or a genjutsu user. He looked over at his other student.

"How high can you go now?" he asked Sasuke although Biscuit had already told him the answer.

"I'm almost at the first branch." He paused for a second and seemed to be struggling with himself for a few seconds. "How come Sakura managed it so easily while I..." His voice trailed off.

"Sakura has an exponentially smaller chakra reserve than you. That's why she can control it so well. For combat specialists like you and me, control comes with practice."

Sasuke nodded and slipped back into his thoughts.

"Where's Naruto?" Sakura whined. Tazuna had refused to eat without his presence. As if on cue, Naruto walked in. It was a testimony of his character, that nobody called him out on his lateness. For once, however there wasn't a sheepish grin on his face. Naruto had a very serious look on him.

"Hey old man. I just visited your town. What happened? How did things get this bad?"

Tazuna sighed.

"All the problems of this country are caused by Gato. He initially came here to set up his shipping industry. Wave is the perfect position to set up a trading industry like his. The Daimyo invited him and even helped him without suspecting a thing. Gato soon bribed all the members of the court and most of the officials. He holds all the power now. You can say the Daimyo is basically a figurehead. He used his power to pass a slew of new taxes which he collected by brute force. He has an army of mercenaries working for him. Soon, the entire country was in his grasp and he shut down all trade routes. Now the only food we have are things we grow here. That is why the bridge is our only hope. The Daimyo managed to order its construction and gave us the funds when he realized what Gato was up to. It was after this act of defiance that Gato made the Daimyo his complete puppet."

Naruto felt anger course through him. That surprised him. He didn't get angry very often.

"Naruto, I know what you are thinking but it can't be done. Our mission is to protect Tazuna. Not save Wave."

"So what? We let this country rot even when we can help."

"We are not gods Naruto."

* * *

Next Day

Sasuke felt a the rush of triumph when he finally managed to scale the tree. Tired and drenched with sweat, he sat down on the tip and looked out over the forest. He started and almost fell off when Kakashi appeared on the branch below him. Why did the man always have to do that? Why couldn't he ever move about like a normal person.

"Hello, Sasuke-kun," Kakashi said with a smile and a wave. "Looks like you're done here. Come on. Let's go. I think it's time I taught you the genjutsu I promised you. But remember one thing. You can never use anything I teach you on your own comrades. Understand?"

Sasuke nodded.

"Good. Now activate your sharingan and let's begin."

* * *

"Kurama-san, how wide is your sensing range?"

_"Pretty big. Never bothered finding out the exact distance."_

"You remember Zabuza's chakra signature?"

_"I do but I'm not going to find him for you if you plan to charge in like a fool."_

"I want to find Gato. My only lead to him is Zabuza."

_"You'll get yourself killed if you just walk into his base without a plan. Why don't you try find some other minions of his? Zabuza is way too dangerous. Plus I don't think you would be able to make him talk even if you somehow manage to defeat him."_

"Hmm. You're right. I'll head into town. I'm bound to run into a few of his goons sooner or later."

* * *

Takeshi's head hit the wall hard. He wondered what he had done to deserve this. Scratch that. He had helped a crazy megalomaniac take over a country.

A fist crushed into his stomach. He bent over and spat out globules of blood. Wiping his mouth with his hand, he looked up at his tormentor. A small blond kid wearing a hitai-ate. So even ninjas young as him were this strong. The thought was boggling.

A hand pulled his face up. He was looking into blue eyes.

"Tell me where Gato is," the ninja growled.

"Fuck you. What's the point? You'll kill me after I tell you. And if I tell you, Gato will kill me."

A feral grin appeared on the ninja's face. The guy looked much scarier now.

"That's where you're wrong. One. If I kill you , I can make it infinitely more painful for you than Gato ever could. And two. If I let you go, Gato won't be able to do anything to you. You know why? Because I would have already killed him."

The ninja's eyes turned red. His pupils turned into vertical slits. Takeshi had been in many life or death fights but he had never felt a killing intent like this. In his mind's eye, he saw the ninja killing him in a thousand different ways. He had never felt so scared in his life and he was sure he never would again.

"Gato is in the west end of the forest. He has a hideout of sorts there with a lot of guards. Please let me go." he squeaked.

"Are there any ninja in the guards?"

"No. None that I know of. Please let me go. I'm sorry for everything."

Takeshi felt himself flying. The ninja had thrown him away with just one hand. His back thudded into the alley wall.

"I do not want to find you causing any trouble in Wave again." With that the ninja just plain disappeared.

Takeshi felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from his heart. He was never going to mess with a ninja again. First Zabuza and now this kid. They were all monsters. He looked down and discovered that he had soiled himself. A jump in the river it was for him then. He would cross after that and leave Wave forever. This place was too dangerous for him.

* * *

"Haku."

"Yes Zabuza-sama?"

"Come on. It's time to move. We can't give them too much of a reprieve."

"Yes. Let's go."

* * *

"Kurama-san, you feel anything?"

_"There are a bunch of people around 700m to your left. That must be the hideout that grunt spoke of."_

"Good. We found it. Be ready. There might be shinobi in the guards and I might need your help."

_"You sure you can take that place down alone?"_

"Yeah. They won't even know I'm there."

Naruto jumped from branch to branch as fast as he could until he came upon on a huge clearing. It had to be artificial. The fortress was a large three storey building. There were guards on the perimeter of the clearing, two at the entrance of the building and a couple on the roof. From the way they moved, Naruto deduced that none of them were shinobi.

_"How are you going to do this? Sneak in or take out all these guys first?"_

"I need to scare Gato to do what I have planned. So we take out all these guys first."

_"Nice. Let's do it."_

* * *

Kakashi leaned against the edge of the bridge reading his book. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Sasuke and Sakura standing guard near Tazuna. Naruto was nowhere to be seen. He hoped he wasn't doing something stupid. He had been kind of harsh on him earlier. All he had wanted to teach Naruto was that sometimes there were situations out of our control. The kid had not been happy when he had been told that.

Kakashi's senses kicked into high alert as a mist started rolling in.

"All the workers run away now. Tazuna stay close to me and my team. This mist isn't natural." he shouted.

Kakashi unveiled his sharingan as there was a stampede of sorts in front of him. Ignoring it, he tried to sniff out Zabuza's position. No good. His nose wasn't good enough in a mist of this thickness. He was about to summon Pakkun when he felt an attack coming from behind.

He drew a kunai in his right hand and whirled around. He watched in slow motion as Zabuza tried to cleave him in half with a ordinary katana. With his left hand, he slapped the blade down and went for Zabuza's face with the other. Zabuza swayed back and with a show of brute force, pulled his sword free from Kakashi's hand. A spray of blood flew from the hand as the sword's edge sliced through Kakashi's palm. After pulling it free, Zabuza pushed it back along the same trajectory in an attempt to stab Kakashi. Kakashi jumped back and put some distance between them. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sasuke fighting a kid his age before the mist obscured them from view. He hoped Sasuke was fine. He really wasn't at the liberty to go help him now. He snapped his attention back as Zabuza melted back into the mist. Damn. He couldn't fight him off with taijutsu with only one hand. Only one choice then.

* * *

Sasuke had activated his sharingan as soon as the mist had started rolling in. That was how he had managed to see the hail of senbon coming at Tazuna. He had blocked them with a Katon.

"Sakura, stay close to Tazuna. I'll handle this."

He pushed chakra to his feet and rushed ahead. Three senbon came at him. He dodged them with a sidestep. The enemy used that moment to attack from above. Had it not been for his eyes, he would had never seen it coming. He rolled to the side and threw a kunai. The enemy caught it mid-air and threw it back. Sasuke dodged again and for the first time, he got a good look on his opponent. It a girly looking guy of his age. He wasn't going to lose to someone to his age again. Naruto had been enough.

The guy lifted his hand and made some handsigns.

"Sensatsu Suishō"

Sasuke's eyes widened as a thousand water needles launched themselves at him. With another burst of chakra to his feet, he jumped out only to find that the guy had disappeared.

"You have the sharingan. I will have to bring out my strongest attack to defeat you. Makyō Hyōshō"

Sasuke watched it shock as a dome of ice mirrors formed around him. Each mirror held a reflection of his enemy. He raised his hands instantly and used another Katon but with no effect. His attack barely singed the ice. Each reflection lifted his hand and threw a senbon at him. There were too many to dodge. He tried to escape the ones aimed at his vitals. As he braced himself to be hit, nothing happened. He realized that the reflections could not actually attack him. There had been only one senbon thrown at him. He must have dodged it by luck. Now all he had to do was pinpoint which mirror the enemy was in. He saw the next attack coming but did nothing. At the last instant, he moved two inches to his right. A senbon thudded into his chest right next to his heart. He looked up at the mirror it had come from. He had his target. His enemy realized that he had been found out. He leaped out of the mirror and moved towards another mirror while keeping his eyes on his opponent. Sasuke thanked that the stars that he was an Uchiha. He would never have been able to keep up with this guy's movements otherwise. The guy was looking right at him. Perfect. He couldn't have asked for anything better. He locked eyes with his enemy.

* * *

Naruto counted the number of grunts on the roof. There were five. He pulled out five shuriken and shunshined right in between. He streamed electricity into them and threw the shuriken at all five. It hit them all in from behind. They were all down before they knew what was happening. He walked up to the first one and pulled out the shuriken. Freed from his paralysis, he tried to scream but Naruto knocked him out with a punch to the neck before he could do anything. He repeated the process four more times. He walked over to the edge and looked around. There were seven at the perimeter.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu"

A barrage of shuriken flew at them. Just as the shuriken were about to hit, Naruto created a Kage Bunshin and jumped down onto the two guards at the gate. The seven at the perimeter and the two at the gate were taken out at the exact same instant. Naruto dispelled his clone and listened for the sound of an alarm. Nothing. He created nine Kage Bunshins and made them perform Henge. With that done, he jumped back to the roof and walked towards the door leading into the building.

"Kurama-san, how many more?"

_"Three more. All three in the same location. Must be Gato and his two personal bodyguards."_

"No servants or such?"

_"None. This guy must be really paranoid."_

"Whatever. It makes it easier for me"

* * *

Sasuke locked eyes with his enemy and cast a genjutsu. The guy fell to the ground and lay still. The ice mirrors melted away slowly. Sasuke grabbed his head in pain. Kakashi hadn't mentioned how much chakra that ate up. The chakra drop would take some getting used to. He started tying his downed opponent up in case he managed to break out of the genjutsu.

* * *

Kakashi pulled out a scroll with his right hand and smeared it with blood from his left hand. Ignoring the pain, he forced his hands together and made four handsigns with the scroll held between his thumbs. He then slapped the scroll and his hands onto the ground.

"Kuchiyose: Doton: Tsuiga no Jutsu"

There was a rumbling underground. Zabuza broke off the jutsu he was about to perform and heightened his guard. Eight dogs burst out of the ground all around him and latched themselves onto him before he could react. His concentration waned and the mist began to disappear.

"It's over Zabuza. Surrender now while you can or else prepare to die."

"It isn't over until I'm dead, Kakashi."

"Your call," said Kakashi as he lifted his right hand and powered up a Raikiri. "Say good-bye to the world."

"Stop" a voice called.

* * *

Sometime ago

Naruto walked down the corridor silently. He reached the door and knocked.

"Come in" a voice said.

With a grin, he kicked the door open. There were exclamations of surprise from the occupants of the room. Two samurai saw his hitai-ate and rushed at him. He disappeared and appeared behind them and continued walking towards Gato. Both of them went down in a spray of blood. Naruto watched as the man who had ruined Wave spluttered and tried to run away.

He caught him with a hand and pinned him against the wall. Accomplishing this was a bit difficult because of his height but he managed it somehow.

"Hello," he said with a ferocious grin.

"Wh-who are you?"

"Me? I'm the guy who is going to torture you until you write a document handing over all your assets to the Daimyo of the Wave."

"I'll do it. I'll do it. Please don't hurt me. I'll give you all the money you want."

Naruto kept his face free of surprise with some difficulty. That was all? One empty threat and the guy had caved. Even his grunt had taken more work. Was the guy who had captured a country really such big a coward?

_"Take what you get, kid. This makes your work easier."_

Naruto slapped Gato and threw him down.

"Write it now."

Gato crawled to a desk in the corner and drew a sheet of paper. He picked up a pen and shakily wrote out the deed. Naruto walked up and read it. Then with a punch he knocked Gato out.

* * *

Kakashi and Zabuza looked to where the voice had come from. It was Naruto. He had a small man dressed in black slung over his shoulder. He threw the man down and pulled out a piece of paper.

"Zabuza, this fight is pointless. This guy can't pay you anymore. He already handed over everything he has to the Daimyo. About that, Kakashi-sensei can you check and see if there are any loopholes in this. I hope it's enough."

Kakashi's jaw actually dropped. The kid had actually taken out Gato. Even after he had been told that there was nothing he could do. How the hell could he have managed that? Maybe the Gato he had captured was an imposter. He snapped his head back to Zabuza. Even his face was filled with astonishment. A really big deal considering that he had eight dogs biting into his body.

"Kakashi. We're done. This fight is over. Haku and I will be off."

So that was the real Gato. Kakashi sent his dogs back but didn't let his guard down. Zabuza sheathed his katana.

"Relax Kakashi. I'm a man of my word. Plus I don't like fighting unnecessary fights. We both have been through enough fights to realize the value of life."

Sasuke chose that moment to arrive accompanied by Tazuna and Sakura. They saw the situation and puzzled expressions made their way onto their faces.

"What's going on?"

Zabuza jerked a thumb towards Naruto.

"The kid took down Gato. Where's Haku?"

"Passed out and tied him. Got him with a genjutsu," Sasuke said with a dazed expression on his face. He still couldn't digest what was going on. He had thought that he was catching up with Naruto when he had defeated the guy called Haku. But Naruto had beaten Gato himself. Damn. He would have to work harder.

Zabuza started walking away to go check on Haku. How had Haku been beaten by a kid like this? It didn't make sense. Was this team filled with monsters?

"Hey Zabuza-san, here!" Naruto shouted as he threw a scroll at him. Zabuza turned and caught it. He opened it and with a puff of smoke his Kubikiribocho appeared. He caught it with a another look of surprise on his face.

"You're giving it back?"

"Yeah. Spar with me."

"What?"

"Come on. You're one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. Do you know how cool that is? Come on. Spar with me."

"Later kid. I'm not going anywhere for the time being with these wounds. Besides there are more important things to do right now." he said pointing at Gato.

"Hmm. You're right. Oy Tazuna-san, here you go. You should go give this to your Daimyo." He handed him the piece of paper. Tazuna read the paper and fell down onto his knees. Tears started streaming from his eyes.

"Thank you. Thank you, Naruto-san. You don't know how grateful I am. You have saved this country and my family."

Naruto looked highly uncomfortable.

"Hey old man. Please get up. There is no need to thank me. I only did what I could. This bastard deserved it. By the way, this guy is still alive. You should take him to the Daimyo too."

Tazuna got up and walked over to the unconscious Gato and kicked him hard. Gato grunted and continued sleeping.

"This is going to be fun."

* * *

Two Days Later

Tazuna wondered the last time he had been so uncomfortable in his own house. Sitting around the table and eating his daughter's cooking were the shinobi who had protected him and the shinobi who had been trying to kill him. And it seemed that he was the only guy who seemed bothered by the fact. He shook his head. Everything had turned out so well. He wasn't going to complain about a couple of small things like this.

"So Zabuza, why haven't you gone back to Kiri yet? Why work for Gato in the first place?" asked Kakashi.

"What do you mean?"

"You mean you don't know?"

"Huh? Don't know what? Stop beating around the bush Kakashi."

"The civil war in Kiri is over."

The chopsticks in Zabuza's hand slipped out of his grasp and clattered onto the ground. Silence reigned around the table for a while. It was Haku who broke it.

"Are you sure, Kakashi-san?"

"Yeah. We received an official letter from the new Mizukage around a month ago. Something about establishing new diplomatic relations with Konoha."

"What l have I been doing? How could have I not heard something big like this?"

"That's because your Mizukage is not letting out the news that the civil war is over. Somebody might take advantage of it to attack. The only reason Konoha was approached was because Hokage-sama is known to be peace-loving. The Mizukage knew that he wouldn't order an attack however high the odds may have been in our favour."

"Who is the new Mizukage?"

"No clue."

"You couldn't have mentioned this before?'

"Ummm... You were trying to kill me. Who stops to talk in the middle of a fight anyway?"

"Fuck man, yo-"

"Language." growled Tsunami. Zabuza instantly quietened down.

Naruto watched in wonder. A simple housewife had just ordered the Demon of the Mist to shut up and he had obeyed. He shuddered. Women were a really scary species.

"Sorry. Anyway thanks Kakashi. I owe you one. And you too kid. I might have been dead if you hadn't turned up with Gato when you did."

"No problem but you still owe me a spar."

"You're here till the bridge is complete. My wounds would have healed by then. You'll get your spar."

"On that note, the Daimyo has a request, Kakashi-san. He will pay you the money for it too. He wants you to clean up all the goons which Gato had hired. He currently doesn't have the manpower to do it himself." Tazuna said.

"I'll do it." Zabuza interjected. Tazuna tried to hid his shock but failed miserably.

"You... why?" he spluttered.

"Show of good faith. Plus it will be nice to have some money in case things don't work out really for me in Kiri."

Tazuna looked as if he had been made to eat rancid butter. He shook himself.

"Come on the Daimyo will want to meet you then. Kakashi-san, you and your team should come too. Especially Naruto-san. The Daimyo wants to thank you for your service."

"Nice. Let's go Kakashi-sensei. He can pay us too. This was atleast an A-rank not the measly C-rank the old man paid us for."

Tazuna twitched.

* * *

Naruto walked out of Tazuna's house after dinner. The meeting with the Daimyo had been really boring. The guy had been overly formal. Naruto decided that he didn't like formalities.

"Naruto wait." he heard Kakashi-sensei call out.

He turned around and saw him walking out of the door towards him.

"I want to talk to you for a bit. Let's go somewhere else."

Naruto followed him as Kakashi led him to a clearing on the forest.

"How did you manage to find Gato?"

"I roamed the town until I found one of his goons. Forced it out of him."

Kakashi twitched. It had been that easy?

"And Gato? Didn't he have guards?"

"Around 15. Took them all out."

"Luckily it worked out for you but you won't be so lucky every time."

"What do you mean?"

"What if your team is attacked while you are gone and your absence is the reason all of them are killed? What if you get killed because you went alone? Did you even consider things like these? There was a reason I told you not to try anything."

Naruto looked down at the ground. He hadn't felt like a small child in a long time. He realized his mistake. It had been a big one.

"Sorry. Won't happen again."

"Make sure it doesn't. In the ninja world, those who break the rules are trash, that's true, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash." Kakashi jumped off leaving behind a dejected Naruto.

* * *

Two Weeks Later

"I'm hungry, sensei" Naruto whined.

"Relax, we are only two kilometres from a village. We'll stop there for the night. Konoha is a half-day's journey away. We'll reach there by tomorrow afternoon. Is that fine with you?"

Team Kakashi reached the village and checked into a hotel.

"Sensei, this place doesn't have ramen. I really feel like having ramen. I'll be back later."

Naruto vanished. Kakashi sighed and rubbed the back of his head.

"How do I make that kid stop eating ramen?"

* * *

Naruto eventually found a ramen stall. He wished he was back home at Ichiraku's. The old man's ramen was the best. When his bowl arrived, he lifted his chopsticks and dug in with gusto. The first mouthful was in his mouth and down in throat within seconds. As he reached for his second mouthful, his arm felt very heavy. His eyes felt droopy.

"That's strange. Why am I feeling sleepy in the middle of the day?"

That was the last thought that crossed his mind before everything went black.

* * *

This is how fights should be. Fast and deadly with no one stopping to talk in the middle.


	8. Chapter 7: Chase

Chapter 7: Chase

* * *

Sakura walked down the corridor and knocked on her sensei's door.

"Wake up, sensei. It's time to go." She shrieked and jumped a mile when a hand was placed on her shoulder from behind. Whirling around, she saw her sensei standing there fully dressed and smiling sheepishly at her.

"Sorry. Didn't intend to scare you," he said as he dodged the punch she threw at him with ease. "Come on. Let's wake up those two and get going."

Kakashi led a disgruntled Sakura towards her teammates' rooms. A few knocks later, the door was opened by a fully dressed Sasuke.

"Time to go?" he asked.

"Yeah. Wake up Naruto too. He'll sleep on forever if we let him."

"He never came back last night."

Kakashi felt a tingling of unease. Naruto wouldn't stay out the whole night without telling him. Especially after the talking-to he had given him back in Wave. Something must have happened.

"You two stay here and wait for me. Do not leave under any circumstances."

Kakashi walked into the room and made for Naruto's pack. Opening it, he tore a strip of cloth from the corner of a shirt. He noticed that Naruto had left behind all his weapons. Kakashi shunshined to the roof leaving behind two confused genin. He pulled out a kunai and cut his thumb. He slapped his bloody hand onto the ground and summoned Pakkun.

"You remember Naruto, don't you? He left here last night and didn't come back. Pick up his trail."

Pakkun sniffed the air a couple of times and jumped off across the rooftops. He led Kakashi across town to the roof opposite an old ramen stall. Upon arrival, he stopped and started sniffing the air ferociously.

"What's wrong?"

"The kid definitely came here last night. The age of the trail proves that. After that..." His voice trailed off and he started sniffing the air again.

"Pakkun!"

"His trail just disappears here. I can't smell it any direction. Not just his scent. That whole stall has been stripped clean of scents somehow. Must be some jutsu. I can only smell things that have occurred since today morning in there."

"Fuck," Kakashi cursed as he punched a wall hard. "He's been taken by someone with intel on Konoha. They knew that he was with me and they knew that I track by scent. We have a spy. This is bad."

"Why don't you question the owner?"

"No use. This thing reeks of professionalism. They would have cast a genjutsu on the owner or something. There is no way they left any loose ends like that."

He pulled out a kunai again and cut his thumb once more. He summoned his entire pack of ninken.

"All of you spread out and search for Naruto's scent." He pulled out the piece of cloth and held it out to them. "As soon as you find anything, use Akuchiyose no Jutsu and summon me there, got it? Pakkun you head back to the hotel. Take Sakura and Sasuke back to Konoha and tell the Hokage about this. Ask him for an ANBU tracking team. Wait. Ask for a ANBU combat squad as well. We have no idea how strong the kidnappers are. Bring them back here to me. Summon me if they find anything on the way. Go."

* * *

Sarutobi slapped both his hands down onto his table in anger as he received the report from Kakashi's summon. He didn't get angry very often but he was now. Somebody had kidnapped his adoptive grandson.

"Get Tenzo's and Santa's teams right now. I don't care what they are doing." he said to his secretary. As soon as she was gone, he swiveled his chair around and looked at the huge, white-haired man leaning against the wall.

"You have good timing. You're going as well. I want him back at all costs. I will not let my heir die."

"I would have gone even if you had told me not to."

* * *

Kakashi's face remained impassive when the two ANBU teams and Pakkun landed next to his position just outside the village. One of the ANBU was riding a huge black dog. His face however did change when he saw the person accompanying them.

"Jiraiya-sama? What are you doing here?" he asked in astonishment as he jumped down.

The sannin's usually cheerfully face was very serious.

"I'm here to get my godson back. I already heard your mutt's report. Anything new?"

"No. My other ninken haven't picked up anything yet."

"You. The Hyuuga. Check out the stall."

An ANBU with a bird mask stepped forward and made a single handsign.

"Chakra signatures. Very faint. They have been wiped. Without the Byakugan, no sensor would have noticed it."

"How many?"

"Two performed the grab. They met up with 6 more at a spot around a kilometre from here."

"How wide is your range? Can you see them?" another ANBU asked.

"The grab occurred last night. More than 12 hours ago. There is no way they are any way near enough for me to see them. Anyway they are moving north. We should get moving."

"Let's inspect the meeting point first. We might find something there." said Jiraiya.

10 shinobi jumped off in unison.

* * *

The Inuzuka dog sniffed the air and let out a doleful bark.

"He still can't smell anything." said his partner.

"Hyuuga. You sure that this the exact spot the enemy were?" asked Jiraiya.

The ANBU nodded. Jiraiya pulled out an empty scroll and drew a complex array on it.

He placed the scroll on the ground and positioned both his hands onto it. He channeled a burst of chakra into it. The array leaked out of the scroll and spread onto the entire clearing.

"I have de-activated the use of chakra inside this zone. The jutsu which is hiding all their scents shouldn't be working now."

The dog sniffed the air again and let of a series of barks. The Inuzuka nodded. "He has their scents."

"Tell him to remember it. They'll disappear again when I release the seal. Let's go. Try and keep up with me you lot. I'm going to go as fast as I can."

* * *

Naruto was moving. His head felt dizzy. He opened his eyes but found that he had been blindfolded. He felt bindings on his hand and feet. He tried to access his chakra but found something preventing him from doing so. So he had been kidnapped.

"You there, Kurama-san?"

_"You're finally awake. Good. I have been battling the poison in your blood for hours now. They keep re-injecting you with a new dose just as I'm about to finish. It seems they know about me."_

"Any idea who they are?"

_"No but you better do something now before they inject you again."_

"My chakra has been blocked. Give me yours."

_"With pleasure."_

* * *

Hitoshi felt the captive on his shoulder stir. Panic rose in him. He dropped him onto the ground instantly.

"He's waking up Muta. Poison him fast." he shouted.

He watched as Muta fumbled for the poison. After the last incident with Roshi, he had learned the hard way never to anger a jinchuriki and one thing was for sure. If the kid woke up, he was going to be angry as hell.

Muta pushed a syringe into a bottle and drew the poison into the tube. He bent down and tried to stab his captive but failed. There was something red oozing out his captive's body. The needle disintegrated on contact. He watched as the kid lifted his head and looked at him with red eyes. Time to fight then. They were all Iwa jounin. They could take on a single jinchuriki.

* * *

Hell yeah! Writing cliff hangers is fun. Now I see why Kishimoto keeps doing it. Seriously though, the short chapter is not my fault. Second year of engineering is hell.


	9. Chapter 8: Tactical Retreat

Chapter 8: Tactical Retreat

* * *

The ANBU team halted as one when they felt chakra they hadn't felt in twelve years. The chakra was powerful enough for non-sensors to feel it at a distance of over 30 kilometres. They set off again following the trail Jiraiya, Kakashi and Tenzo had left for them. Skilled as they were, they couldn't keep up with their speed.

* * *

"You're good, kid. What's your name again? I didn't expect anyone other than Kakashi to match my speed."

"Tenzo."

"Tenzo. Tenzo. Hmmm... where have I heard that name before? Wait aren't you the kid who Orochimaru..." Jiraiya's voice trailed away. The look on Kakashi's face was all the confirmation he needed.

A powerful chakra announced itself to the entire world just then. All three of them stopped in their tracks. Jiraiya shook himself and turned back towards Tenzo.

"I'm glad to have you with me, kid. We might have need of your Mokuton. Come on. We have almost caught up. He's not too far away. I hope you two aren't two tired too fight?"

Seeing both of them shake their head, Jiraiya jumped off and took the lead once again.

* * *

A volley of assorted weapons flew at Naruto as he pulled himself slowly off the ground. Naruto opened his mouth and roared. A powerful shockwave blasted outwards from him in all directions. The shockwave repelled all the weapons and knocked all his opponents away. Naruto stood up, held up a hand and inspected the chakra cloak surrounding him.

"Kurama-san, I'm up against 8 jounin. I don't think I have the liberty to hold back. Give me everything the seal let's you give me. "

Three tails slowly sprouted from the red chakra cloak just as his enemies picked themselves up and arranged themselves in a battle formation. The leader lifted his hands to begin the preparations for a jutsu. He never got the chance. In a red blur, Naruto disappeared and appeared in front of him, with a punch flying towards his jaw. In an attempt to avoid it, he jumped backwards. An arm of pure chakra extended outwards from Naruto's arm and hit him while he was in the air. His body flew away as if it were a ragdoll.

Naruto pulled back the arm of chakra and extended the length of his tails. Using his momentum, he began to spin. As he spun, his tails wrought a circle of destruction all around him. The rest of his enemies scattered in all directions to avoid his tails, breaking their formation completely.

The Iwa jounin split into two groups of four and three. Four hung back and started forming handsigns while the others attacked Naruto.

"Doton: Sando no Jutsu," the trio cried in unison, slapping their palms onto the ground. Two rock formations rose on Naruto's sides and attempted to sandwich him in between. Pushing chakra to his feet, Naruto jumped and cleared the attack. As he fell back towards the ground, a complex sealing array appeared on the ground with the four Iwa jounin at its centre.

"What the hell is that?"

_"It is some kind of seal. Do not touch it any cost. It must be something made to contain bijuu for sure."_

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," Naruto cried and created a clone. Jumping onto his clone mid-air, he pushed off and landed clear of the seal.

" This is bad. I really need to learn some long-range techniques."

_"Although I don't like the notion of running away, it's the only thing to do right now. You're nowhere near strong enough to take on a team of jounin alone without my chakra."_

"Let's call it tactical retreat."

Kurama chuckled.

_"Tactical retreat, huh? I like the sound of that. I sense Kakashi and Tenzo nearby. They're with one more person I don't recognize but his chakra is very powerful. "_

"How powerful?"

_"Powerful enough for me to consider him to be a threat and that's saying something."_

"What? Who the hell is he and how does sensei know him?"

_"Now's not the time to worry about that. You better get going."_

"Fuck. Take me to sensei. He'll know what to do."

_"30 degrees west. One and a half kilometres away."_

Naruto sped off as fast he could with the his pursuers trailing some distance behind him. In a few minutes, he heard the sounds of people approaching. He retracted his chakra cloak just as Kakashi-sensei and Tenzo-san appeared in front of him. They were accompanied by large man with a mane of white hair. Naruto recognized him from the research he had done on his father. That was Jiraiya of the Sannin. His father's teacher.

"Naruto!" Kakashi screamed as soon as he laid eyes on his student.

"Yo sensei," Naruto said. "I would like to stop and chat but we should really get moving. There are 7 of them after me."

"Who are they?" Tenzo interjected.

"Iwa jounin."

"Iwa?" Kakashi said in surprise. "Wow. They must really hate sensei if they tried to pull off a stunt like this after so many years."

"Can we talk later? We need to move."

"There's no need for that now," Tenzo said.

"Why?"

"Jiraiya-sama is here." Kakashi said simply as the enemies came into view. This statement brought a huge smile onto Jiraiya's face.

"That's right, kid. I am the one and only great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku, Jiraiya of the Sannin," he shouted as he struck a pose. The Iwa team had stopped as soon as they had identified Jiraiya and were now eyeing him warily. Jiraiya disappeared. Naruto gasped. Jiraiya was faster than Naruto was when he was using his shunshin. Jiraiya's hand crashed into first enemy's chest. The man flew back in a spray of blood. The others all backed away and threw kunai at him. He snatched two of the kunai out of the air and snapped them back at the throwers' before they could even react. The kunai sunk into their throats. Jiraiya's hair transformed and formed a sort of barrier around of him. The other kunai hit it and fell away harmlessly. Two of the Iwa jounin drew swords and closed in on him. Jiraiya reached out with his right hand and grabbed one of them by his throat. He leaned back to avoid the other one's attack and lifted his left hand. A sphere of pure chakra formed on his palm and he slammed it into the other enemy. There was a nasty noise as the technique ground into his chest as if it were made of butter. The man crashed down onto the forest floor never to rise again. He slung the shinobi he was holding over his shoulder. Having freed both his hands, he brought them together to make a few handsigns.

"Katon: Endan."

A massive fireball erupted out of Jiraiya's mouth and wrought pure destruction on the swath of forest before him. Jumping back, he placed the Iwa shinobi at Kakashi's feet.

"There you go. Problem solved," he said as Naruto gaped at him with wonder on his face. Naruto decided that this guy was cool as hell.

"Come on. Let's meet up with the others first. These guys might have back-up somewhere."

* * *

Muta bowed low and hoped that he wouldn't be punished too badly. He had failed a S-rank mission. One that had been specially entrusted to him.

"I'm sorry, Tsuchikage-sama but the boy escaped. We kept injecting him with the serum but we underestimated his recovery time. He was able to break free."

The tiny old man sitting in front of him leaned forward.

"So he woke up. That was within the plan. Why didn't you capture him again?" he asked.

"When he woke up, he summoned his bijuu's chakra. He got me first. I am still alive because I just managed to harden my skin before he struck. I don't know what happened after that. When I woke up they were all gone. There were no bodies at my location. A large part of the forest was burned down nearby. I assume it was a Katon technique. I was able to find some charred remains there but I can't be sure of the numbers. It is possible that some of my squad may have been taken captive."

The Tsuchikage stood up. This was bad. Konoha could start a war over an incident like this. Nobody was supposed to find out about their involvement.

"Erase all records of yourself and your team. If Konoha asks then I will tell them that you all were missing-nin. Got it? If the worst happens, then I will hand you over as a peace offering. Be prepared. Now go."

* * *

Onoki watched as one of his finest jounin walked out of his office. He stretched his fingers and started writing a reply to the letter he was sure to receive from Konoha soon. The only silver lining was that after this incident the Daimyo would side with him rather than the back-stabbing council. This mission had been their prerogative. He sighed as his back acted up once again. He was too old to fight in another war, dammit.

* * *

Sorry for another short chapter but this was all I could do with my busy schedule.


	10. Chapter 9: Trip

Chapter 9: Trip

The dark eyed man woke up and looked around for his partner. His partner was sleeping soundly in the middle of the clearing using his cloak as a pillow instead of keeping watch. The man slowly got up and walked up to the middle of the clearing. He reached his partner and looked down. He saw blue skin and gills. He gently toed him.

"Kisame, get up. We need to get moving if we want to enter Fire country anytime soon."

* * *

Naruto eyes widened with shock before softening and glistening slightly. He lifted his hands and hugged the old man back. He had never been hugged before. It felt nice. It was warm. Was this what it felt like to have a family?

* * *

Sarutobi watched Naruto out of his window as he left his building and made his way back home. He kept his eyes on him until he was lost in the crowd. He turned around and faced the two men in his office.

"Kakashi, how could you have let this happen in the first place? You were supposed to keep a eye on him. Not let him get grabbed by-"

A knock on the door interrupted him.

"Come in."

A man wearing a bandanna and bearing two long scars on his face entered.

"Good Ibiki. You came fast. Jiraiya has a prisoner for you. Get anything you can out of him but do not kill him or give him any permanent injury. He is a Iwa jounin and who knows what might happen in the future. A healthy hostage might be useful."

"Ibiki? Huh. You sure grew up, didn't you? Haven't seen you at all in my last couple of visits to the village." Jiraiya said from his usual position against the wall. There was a toad sitting on his right shoulder

"It is good to have you back, Jiraiya-sama. The prisoner?"

The toad leaped off from Jiraiya's shoulder and landed on Ibiki's.

"He's inside my toad. You know what to do."

"Hai. I'll get to it then."

Ibiki turned and left the office. Sarutobi turned his attention back to Kakashi.

"Well?"

"I thought he was good enough to go alone for a ramen run. We were pretty close to Konoha after all. Plus he actually went up against the demon Zabuza and survived. I really thought that he knew how to take care of himself. Apparently he wasn't. I'm sorry."

Sarutobi sighed.

"It's ok. He's safe now so it's fine. Take better care next time. Now, what do you mean he fought Zabuza? Zabuza, the Demon of the Mist?"

It was Kakashi's turn to sigh now.

"It's a long story. The client lied abou-"

"That can wait for later. We have more important things to worry about," Jiraiya interjected. "I think Minato's seal is weakening. We saw him use the Kyuubi's chakra. A lot of it. The ANBU said they felt it 30 kilometres away."

Silence reigned in the office for a few seconds until Sarutobi broke it.

"Did you take a look at the seal?"

"No. the priority was to get the kid back as soon as possible. I didn't have the time to do it. I'll do it now. I might have to use the key to tighten it up a bit. Secondly, the reason I came back to the village in the first place. I never got a chance to talk to you about it since this thing popped up. I have been following Orochimaru's movements for a while now. After he ran away, he seems to have joined an organization. A very small organization but very powerful. There are only around 10 to 15 members but I think that they are all S-rank missing-nins."

Sarutobi's pipe fell out of his mouth.

"How can that be possible?"

"You think Orochimaru would join a group with people weaker than him voluntarily? I said I was guessing. I am not sure of any of this. Another reason for my guess is that Orochimaru seems to have either been expelled or left this group. Not sure which but all this seems to point to the fact that this group is dangerous. Very dangerous."

"What is their goal?"

"Another conjecture. I have this spy in an underground organization which puts out bounties. As far as I can see, all they have been doing for the past couple of years is building up their finances. However recently they have stopped that and are now making forays into different countries. Now we are entering into even more muddy waters. This group made a foray into Takigakure and Iwagakure recently. I have a couple of people in the secretariat of both the villages on my payroll. Both of these forays of their coincides with the disappearance of a jinchuuriki. I know I'm pushing it here but I think that they are hunting jinchuuriki."

Sarutobi bent down and picked up his pipe. He walked over to his desk, picked up a lighter and it.

"The probability of this thing being true is very small. However I can't ignore it. Though small, the chance that it is true still exists." He took a couple of drags from his pipe. "Jiraiya, what do you think I should do? Confine Naruto to the village?"

"That won't solve anything. If this group really has S-rank shinobi like Orochimaru, it will be child's play for them to infiltrate and take the kid by force if not by stealth. Hell, other than you and me nobody else in the village can stand up to a guy like Orochimaru in the first place. No offence Kakashi but you aren't that good yet."

"None taken. I know it's true."

"Getting back to the topic, the best thing would be to make the kid stronger. Strong enough to atleast hold them off for awhile and escaping."

Sarutobi let out a puff of smoke.

"Makes sense. Jiraiya, you train him. I'll also put the guards and the ANBU on high alert for... for this group. Do they have a name?"

"I don't know. I'll try and find out."

"Yes. And also pay complete attention to this group for now. Forget Orochimaru for the time being. Got it? Kakashi I want your report by tomorrow morning. Now go both of you. I need to think."

"If I may, Hokage-sama?"

"Go on."

"Well, if we are up against a group of S-rank shinobi, then we need a few of our own. Other than you two there is one more in our village."

"You mean her?"

"Yes."

"Jiraiya, do you think she will come back?"

"I don't know. I can try. She might agree or she might not. Can't really say."

"Fine then. Try and find her. Try your hardest to get her back."

"Sure. Can I take the kid along with me? I can see how good he is and train him during the trip. He'll be safe with me."

"Now that I think of it, that's a good idea. He'll be out of the village while I tell the Council about all of this. They will definitely want to confine him. I'll figure something out by the time you get back."

"Great. That's settled. Hey Kakashi, where can I find that kid?"

"Jiraiya! If you corrupt that boy in any way then I will kill you. Painfully. Got that?"

"Eep."

* * *

Sorry again for the delay and the short chapter.


	11. Chapter 10: Monster of the Mist

Chapter 10 - Monster of the Mist

* * *

A hand shot out from under the umbrella and turned off the blaring alarm. Pushing off his blanket, Naruto rolled off the bed. He rubbed his eyes open and stretched. He let out a cry of pain as his joints screamed and popped in protest.

"Damn you and that crazy strong chakra of yours. My body feels as if it has been trampled by herd of crazy animals."

_"You would be dead right now if not for it. Plus it was you who asked me to not lend you my healing abilities. Want me to fix it?"_

"Nah. I'll let my body get used to your chakra naturally. And I asked you that because I didn't want to rely on your power. I'll use it if I'm in a tough fight. Not otherwise."

_"Suit yourself."_

"It's ok. It's nothing a warm bath won't cure," said Naruto as he shed his clothes and walked into his bathroom. "I hope the building has some hot water left. It's almost noon," he said as he turned the knob. A droplet of water escaped the nozzle and fell on his head. With a scream of exasperation, he rushed out of the bathroom and pulled on a towel. Padding out of his apartment, he made his way down to the landlord.

"Oy, you old fart. Your water supply is broken. Fix it fast," he screamed as he knocked on the door belligerently. The door opened and a grizzled old man stepped out.

"Pay you rent first if you want to get anything, brat."

A sheepish expression flitted onto Naruto's face. "Fuck. I keep forgetting that I told the Jiji to stop paying my rent since I graduated. Um.. Oshimo-san, I'm a little short right now. Give me a couple of more days. And can I have some water as well. I really need a hot bath."

"Pay your rent if you want water. Tomorrow your electricity goes."

The door slammed onto Naruto's face.

"Damn. How the hell am I going to earn my rent in one day?"

* * *

Izumo looked up from his paperwork as Naruto stepped into the Mission Assignment Office.

"Yo, kid. You've been creating some noise around town. Heard you had a run-in with a couple of Rock nin."

"Bumped into a couple of them," Naruto answered evasively. "I'll tell you the whole story some other time. Hey, where's Kotetsu?"

"In Hospital. He got drunk and tried to grope Anko at a party a couple of days ago."

Naruto grimaced. "Glad I wasn't around to see that. Anyway I'm running low on cash right now. I thought I'd do a couple of D-ranks."

"Sure. How many?"

"All of them."

* * *

Jiraiya was not having a good day. He had been looking for Naruto all day. Till now all he found were a couple of hundred shadow clones, none of which seemed to know where the original was.

* * *

Sakura looked up in surprise from her book when someone knocked on her door. Her parents weren't supposed to be back for hours. Pushing herself off the couch she was settled in, she strode to the door and opened it. It was Naruto.

"Yo Sakura," he said cheerily.

"Naruto! Where did you disappear off to that day? Kakashi-sensei was really upset."

"You see I got lost on the road of life," he said and ducked to avoid the punch she threw at him. "It's not good to be violent so early in the day Sakura," he said as he closed the door behind him.

"Early in the day, my ass. It's past noon."

"It's never good to be violent then," he said and stepped back to avoid the vicious swipe she took at him.

"Stop being annoying. What do you want? How did you know where I live in the first place?"

"Oh, I have my ways," he said brushing off her question. "Sensei told me that you have my weapons and my bag."

"Yeah I have them. Wait here. I'll go get them."

Sakura went back to her room to fetch them. She returned and handed them back to him.

"Hey, you want a cup of tea or coffee or something?"

"Nah. I'm fine. Never had them anyway, so it doesn't matter. I'm off then. Have some stuff to do."

"And Naruto. Thanks for your advice. You know the things you told me that day. They gave me lot to think about."

"Sure anytime."

* * *

Naruto was halfway back home when Jiraiya appeared in front of him. He hadn't even felt his presence. How did a guy so big move like that? He also seemed to be really angry going by the large tick on his face.

"Why am I still bothering to look? This must be another one his dastardly clones," he grumbled.

"Actually I'm the real Naruto," offered Naruto. A sharp knock to the top of his head was what he received in reply.

"Ow. What was that for?"

"I have been looking for you since hell knows when. All I have been finding are your damned shadow clones. Why the fuck did you make so many clones?"

"I was doing D-ranks. I need money to pay my rent."

"Are you staying in a palace, kid? Why did you need more money for your rent after your A-rank?"

"A-rank? What A-rank?"

"Huh? Didn't the old man tell you? Your mission to the Wave was upgraded to an A-rank. Those pay a lot."

"What! I did all those shit missions for nothing? I'm going to kill that old fart right now."

He turned and ran towards the Hokage Tower. A laughing Jiraiya reached out and grabbed him by the back of his shirt.

"Forget that. We have things to talk about. Somewhere more private preferably."

"Let's go to my house."

As soon as Jiraiya left him, he shunshined to the next building but before he could do the jutsu again he felt a hand grip his head tightly. He felt himself being lifted and turned around.

"Not so fast. I'm not letting you go after al the shit I had to go through to find you. Get back at the old man some other time. Now lead the way."

* * *

Jiraiya looked around as he walked into Naruto's apartment. The place was pretty much threadbare. The kid didn't seem to have anything that wasn't completely necessary. The place was also filled with scrolls. As Naruto went into his room to deposit his bag, Jiraiya went though a few of them. Most seemed to have been copied from some book while a few seemed to be his own notes on some subject or the other.

"So what did you want to talk about?"

"Well, your tryst with Iwa has the potential to become a huge international incident. The Council might take this as a chance to confine you to the village or something like that. The old man wants you out of the village and his hair while he deals with them. So you and I are going on a little trip together."

"Works for me. When do we leave?"

"Huh? That's it? You agreed pretty easily."

"Why the hell would I say no to go on a trip with Jiraiya of the Sannin?"

"I love this kid. Hopefully he's a pervert as well," Jiraiya thought with a gleeful look on his face.

* * *

"Hm... This is pretty sad. The greatest of the villages, Konoha, is getting lax with its security. They haven't changed the way past their barriers in all the years you have been gone," said Kisame as he and his partner stared down at the village.

"Do not underestimate Konoha," said Itachi.

"So we have some lingering affection for the village we were born in, do we, Itachi-san?"

Itachi glanced at Kisame from the corner of his eye.

"Nothing of the sort. These eyes can see the barriers. Come on. Let's go. And please be careful. I don't care how old he is, I do not wish to have to fight the Professor."

"Ah, Itachi-san. That there is the difference between you and me. I'm always itching for a good fight."

* * *

"This is far enough," said Jiraiya and set down his pack. "Come at me with everything you've got. I want to gauge your level." They were standing on a dusty road running along the edge of the forest surrounding Konoha. There was no one else in sight.

Naruto wordlessly dropped his pack onto the dirt and slipped into a battle-ready stance. Without warning, he flung a few shuriken at Jiraiya and disappeared. He appeared again a few feet above Jiraiya.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

A barrage of sharp weapons rained down on Jiraiya. Without a change of expression, Jiraiya dodged all the shuriken with ease with a backward leap. Naruto was there just as he landed, both his swords flashing through the air. Jiraiya jumped again and the swords whistled past harmlessly below him. Naruto vanished again and appeared right behind Jiraiya in an attempt to impale him from behind.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

A replica of Jiraiya poofed into existence right between them, got stabbed almost instantly by Naruto's attack and dispersed into a cloud of smoke. A hand reached through the smoke and grabbed the front of Naruto's shirt. Without a sound, Jiraiya effortlessly threw Naruto at the trees. Naruto was pummeled through the first trunk by the force of the throw before the second brought a halt to his motion. He sat up slowly with a loud groan.

"How strong is that guy?"

He pulled himself up and emerged from the trees. Jiraiya was standing waiting for him.

"That all you got, kid? I expected more from the son of the Yellow Flash."

* * *

Naruto collapsed backward and lay on the dirt panting. His clothes were drenched in sweat and his body was covered with welts. His view of the night sky was suddenly obscured by Jiraiya's face.

"Nice try, kid. Not bad for someone your age. Rest here. I'll get something to eat."

A grunt was all that he got in response. Correctly translating that as 'Go ahead' Jiraiya walked off into the forest. Naruto stared at the sky for a few minutes before dozing off. A pleasant aroma woke him from his slumber in some time. There was a fire crackling near him and Jiraiya was roasting what appeared to be a couple of rabbits on it. He got up with a groan. His nap had cramped up all his muscles.

"How're you feeling?"

"As if a horse trampled all over me."

"Hahaha. Eat now. You'll feel better. Here you go."

As Naruto started wolfing down the proffered food, Jiraiya began to talk.

"You are too impatient, kid. You are trying to kill your enemy with every move. Never be hasty. You'll be the first to fall for the enemy's traps. Secondly, your style is no good."

Naruto stopped eating and listened to Jiraiya with rapt attention.

"You have a decent shunshin, I accept. However it of no use if your body speed is slow. Doesn't matter how fast you get there, if you aren't fast enough to finish him off. Your speed is low-jounin level at best right now. You need to get faster if you want this style to work. Thirdly, you know no long-range jutsu. You are currently completely a close-range fighter. The last problem is the easiest to fix while the other two need some work. Sleep for now, kid. I'll teach you a couple of new jutsus tomorrow."

* * *

Kisame and Itachi walked down the bustling street keeping their faces hidden.

"So Itachi-san, what's the plan? Capture and interrogate a random shinobi?"

"No need for that. I know his name. I will infiltrate the Operations building and find out whether he is in the village or not. If he is here, we will leave and recon the village. Take him once he's far enough from here. If he's away right now, I'll find out where his mission is. Using Samehada we can track him down en-route."

"Ahh... Recon is a pain. Let's just take him here. We both know that it'll be easy for us to escape from here."

"Yes but I do not like the notion of living the next few weeks running from ANBU squads."

Kisame sighed.

"Valid point. Let's get a hotel room somewhere. I'll wait th-"

Kisame stopped and stared at a man from his past. A man who had played a major role in the events which led to him betraying the Mist. A man with a long scar on his face back then. Now there was one more on his face.

* * *

Many years as a shinobi had given Ibiki very sharp senses. But he didn't even need those to feel the killer intent that had been directed at him. It had been suppressed again in an instant but it had been unmistakable. Many of the shinobi around him had noticed it as well. He whirled about with a kunai in his hand and looked around.

"You two there! In the black and red cloaks. Show your faces!"

The two men who had been walking away stopped. The one on the right turned around slowly and looked up.

A red eye was all Ibiki remembered seeing when he woke up later.

* * *

Anko had been eating dango when she had felt a malicious killer intent and had heard Ibiki's shout. She looked up from her plate in time to see Ibiki fall down unconscious. Chaos broke out. A barrage of weapons flew at the men in the black cloaks.

There was an veritable explosion in the chakra and killer intent emitted by one of the two. The man starting making hand-signs faster than her eyes could follow. He pulled off his hat, shouted, "Suiton: Suijinheki" and spat out an enormous volume of water. She glimpsed blue skin before the water blocked her vision. The water formed a huge wall around the two and blocked all the weapons.

"Suiton: Bakusui Shoha" she heard before the water exploded outwards and enveloped everything she could see.

* * *

Sarutobi snapped out of his nap when he felt an explosion of chakra. He had never felt this chakra before but it was monstrous. It was definitely a human's but it's levels were comparable to those of an bijuu. Definitely a S-class shinobi and definitely an enemy as well. So it seemed Jiraiya was right in his hypothesis. It was a good thing that Naruto was out of the village but he could have really used Jiraiya's help right now. He jumped out of his window and left before his ANBU could arrive and start spouting nonsense about protecting him. He could take care of himself.

* * *

When the water subsided Kisame and Itachi were surrounded by the debris of destroyed buildings and scores of bodies. There was not a thing still standing in a radius of 50 feet around them.

"Let's get going before more shinobi get here," said Itachi. Both of them disappeared with two simultaneous puffs of smoke.

* * *

Sarutobi stood and observed the destruction that had been wrought in his village. Shinobi from the Medical Corps were bustling all around him.

"Report," he said as his secretary walked up to him.

"Things are better than what they seem, Hokage-sama. The Suiton attack was huge but mostly destroyed the buildings and didn't cause much damage to life. We have only 4 casualties till now although a lot more are injured. The injured are being treated. We don't have an id on the attackers yet although what the witnesses say is that they attacked after Ibiki confronted them. I believe he must have recognized one of them."

"Ibiki? Where is he?"

"He appears to have been put under some form of genjutsu. He has woken up but is very confused. He hasn't been able to give us anything useful yet."

"I see. Keep up the efforts and get me something solid fast." The secretary cringed slightly at Sarutobi's harsh tone before walking away.

Sarutobi looked around the crowd and once he spotted the person he was looking for, he walked towards him.

"Kakashi!"

"Hokage-sama."

"Use your ninken and track these two down. Take Tenzou's team with you. Your goal is to track them without them knowing and getting as much information about them as possible. Stay out of combat."

"Hokage-sama, about what Jiraiy-"

"I know. This is too much of a coincidence and I don't believe in those. That's why I'm sending you and not an Inuzuka. You know what is at stake. Now get going and here take this. Use it if you get into a really sticky situation."

Kakashi opened the scroll and gave it a cursory glance. His one eye widened.

"Hokage-sama, are you sure? From what I have heard, he won't be too pleased."

"Then don't get into a sticky situation," said Sarutobi as he turned and walked off.

* * *

Naruto woke up with a cry of anguish as a sheet of cold water was thrown onto him. With another shout, he attacked the man responsible for his rude awakening, Jiraiya. Jiraiya lifted a hand and held him at bay.

"That's enough, kid. We have a lot of ground to cover today and a lot to learn as well."

Naruto controlled himself but his eyes continued bore into Jiraiya as if in the hope that it would cause him to burst into flames.

"If you ever do that again then I'll-"

"Oh stuff it, kid. You are twenty years too early to threaten me. Now go and get ready. I'll teach you a jutsu once we are walking."

Those magic words evaporated Naruto's anger and he ran off in the direction of the stream. In short order, the camp was packed up and the both of them got moving.

"Ok kid, listen up. The first technique is am going to teach you is the Kuchiyose Jutsu. It is the simplest form of all space-time ninjutsu. If you plan to learn any of your father's techniques then this is the precursor to all of them. Anyway, to perform the Kuchiyose Jutsu you first need to form a blood contract with any animal. After that, you can summon them to you anytime you wish using your blood. To summon any animal, you must use an equal amount of chakra as the animal possesses. Hence, the bigger the creature you summon, bigger the drain on your chakra."

"So how do I make an contract. And how do I find an animal to make a deal with in the first place."

"That's why I'm here. You know my moniker right? I am not known as the Toad Sage without reason, you know."

A look of comprehension spread across Naruto's face.

"You summon toads!"

"Yes. And so did your father. I gave him the Toad contract. And now I'm going to give it to you as well."

Jiraiya clapped his hands together. A large scroll appeared in his hands accompanied by the usual puff of smoke. He unrolled it and placed it on the ground.

"There you go. Sign your name in blood and we're can start."

Naruto unsheathed an inch of his sword, cut himself on the edge and signed his name.

"Good. Now watch me. I am going to show you the required hand-signs. In time, with practice you won't need to use them."

Naruto watched Jiraiya flip through the hand-signs and got ready to do it himself.

"How much chakra do I use?"

"Pump in how much ever you can. Let's see how big a toad you can summon."

"You got it."

Naruto focused for a second and gathered up as much chakra as he could muster and performed the jutsu. Accompanied by a gigantic puff of smoke an equally gigantic purple toad wearing a coat appeared.

"Geez, what a pain," said Jiraiya as he rubbed his neck sheepishly. "This kid is even more troublesome than Minato. How the hell did he manage to summon Gamabunta on his first try? How much chakra does he even have? And more importantly how am I going to handle Bunta? He must be still pissed from the time I summoned him in salt water."

* * *

"Itachi!"

"What?"

"Samehada says the he senses three gigantic chakra signatures nearby. And one of them tastes like a fox."

"I'll go scout them. You take care of the ones following us. Try not to let everyone in a 10 mile radius know, will you?"

"Relax. I can be sneaky when I need to be. Silent Killing is an essential art if you want to become one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist."

* * *

"Jiraiya, you bastard! Where have you summoned me this time? I'm not going to fight for you again. I told you that last time."

"Hey Bunta! Long time. Wasn't me who summoned you. It was this guy here," he said jerking his thumb towards Naruto.

"Hello! I am Naruto."

"What? How can a runt like him summon me? Stop fucking with me Jiraiya. I am in no mood for one of your jokes."

"No jokes, Bunta. This is Naruto, Minato's son. He just signed the contract."

Gamabunta bent over and stared at Naruto with one eye.

"You look just like him. Hmph... so it seems you have inherited his skill. Well then summon me again sometime. We will have some sake and seal the deal. And if you summon me at times like this jerk does then the deal's off."

"Huh? What do you mean? When does he summon you?"

"Every single time he gets into some sort of wild rampage."

"And no other time? You mean he doesn't call you over just have some fun or something?"

"Now you're talking, kid. Jiraiya learn something from him."

"Dont worry, Gamabunta-san. I'll summon you just to have fun and nothing else."

"You do that kid," said Gamabunta with a laugh as he disappeared with a puff of smoke.

"Bah! Come on kid. Let's get moving."

"Wait! I have questions. Who else can I summon? How many toads are there? Are they all as big as him? Where do they come from?"

"Calm down, kid. I'll tell you as we walk."

They did not notice a pair of red eyes staring at them from amongst the trees.

* * *

"Kakashi! They have split up and one of them is heading right at us. They knew that they were being followed," shouted Pakkun as he came to rest atop a branch.

"Dammit! Senpai, what do you want to do? Fight?"

"The Hokage said no combat. Let's set up a trap and retreat. If he falls for it, we'll capture him and take him back. If he doesn't, we retreat till he gives up. I don't think he will come near the village again. Come on. Let's move fast. If this is the same guy who pulled out that Suiton back in the village, I have no intention of fighting him unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Kakashi! There's no time for that. He's thrice as fast as what he was earlier. He'll be here in no time. Run now."

Before the Pakkun's words had sunk in, the air around them began to get thicker.

"What the hell is this?" one of the ANBU cried.

"It's mist. This guy must be from the mist. This is the Kirikagure no Jutsu. This is bad. My vision's almost already gone. What should we do, Senpai?"

Just as Tenzou finished talking, a monstrous chakra and killer intent announced itself to them.

'Well then I'm out of here. Summon me again if you live Kakashi," said Pakkun before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

* * *

Sarutobi walked down the hospital corridor towards Ibiki's room. Ibiki had come to his senses and had asked for him. He opened the door and walked in. His torture specialist opened his eyes and look at him alertly.

"Who was it?"

"Itachi."

* * *

I have decided to add a jutsu description list to all my chapters. So here's the first one.

Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Cone Technique): The user creates a thousand shadow clones from one shuriken, striking down the enemy.

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique): Come on! Who doesn't know this one.

Suiton: Suijinheki (Water Style: Water Wall): This defensive technique creates a wall of water around the user. Enemy attacks are completely intercepted by a fence of water blown out from the mouth, and is raised from below with tremendous might

Suiton: Bakusui Shoha (Water Style: Exploding Water Shock Wave): The user spits out a great volume of water from their mouth, swallowing up and crushing the enemy with the advancing surge.

Kirikagure no Jutsu (Hiding in Mist Technique): This displacement technique is a speciality of the ninja from Kirigakure, where one causes a mist to spring forth by lifting up some water from either a pre-existing source or expelled from their mouth, then goes in and out of sight at will from within the pearly-white realm.


	12. Chapter 11: Cornered

First of all, sorry for the delay in this post. Had an intern and then exams. You can expect more updates in the coming few weeks but don't get too optimistic. I have another intern coming up.

* * *

Chapter 11 - Cornered

* * *

Jiraiya cursed when he sensed an enormous chakra erupt out of nothingness. A guy with this much chakra was definitely a S-ranker. This was no coincidence. This had to be the Akatsuki. Damn! He frankly had not expected them to find Naruto so fast.

"Sensei, is that guy human? How can someone have so much chakra?"

"Now you know how other people feel when they meet you kid."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Come on, Naruto. Time to get moving. I don't really want to meet this guy."

"Neither do I."

* * *

Itachi blinked when he felt Kisame's chakra erupt out of nothingness.

"Damn that idiot! I told him to be sneaky."

He sensed that his targets had sped up drastically. They were moving in a direction away from Kisame. He moved to intercept.

* * *

Kakashi lifted his hitai-ate and exposed his sharingan eye. He pulled out a kunai and had a look around. It was useless. The mist was too thick for him to see anything even with his sharingan. There was so much chakra in the air, that it was impossible for him to pin-point its source. The mist was interfering with his sense of smell as well. This was not good. From the chakra, he could tell that this was the same person as the one who had attacked Konoha. He had seen the devastation this guy had caused. He frankly did not want to face an attack of that scale head-to-head.

"Manji formation," he called out.

The five of them formed a circle with their backs facing inwards.

"We have to find a way to loca-"

Before he could complete his sentence, a giant bandaged sword emerged from the mist and slashed at them. The thing was big enough to cut through all five of them if they allowed it to. Blocking something that big and moving that fast was suicidal. They jumped out of the way.

Kakashi and Tenzo landed on the same branch.

"Senpai, How do you think he is tracking us?"

"Either he is a sensor or he is using sound. Nothing else makes sense. Damn it! We can't even use hand gestures to communicate in this bloody mist."

A scream of pain rang out from their left followed by another.

"He's taking us apart as if we were genin. We have to do something now or else we're finished," whispered Tenzo.

Kakashi jumped to the ground and pulled out a scroll. It was the one the Hokage had given him. He had not expected to use it so early on in the mission. A mission which had begun only a few hours ago. He opened it, placed it on the ground and pressed his palm against the sealing array that was drawn in it. He gathered his chakra and pumped it into the scroll.

"Senpai, look out," screamed Tenzo as the sword appeared again, right behind him.

There was a puff of smoke and the sword was blocked by a single furry arm.

"Damn that Sarutobi! Handing out my summoning scroll to a brat like you. Didn't even bother to ask for my permission first. Just sent a message though one of my nephews. I'm going to kill him when I see him. Don't get in my way, brat. I'll handle this bastard. I need to let out all this anger before I meet Sarutobi again or I might actually kill when I see him again," growled Enma.

Kakashi gulped nervously.

* * *

Okay, I know this one was ridiculously short but bear with me. I have an exam tomorrow. Wrote this because I was really frustrated and needed a break. Like I said before, I'll start updating regularly again in a couple of weeks.


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